Hi folks,
Just signed up over here. Had some unusual free time & googled for links to CP for fun.
GOOGLE SEARCH FOR LINKS TO CP
I found this thread (somewhat to my dismay, but better off for it I am sure).
I am sorry so many peeps think I am some kind of Nazi here. Maybe a bit of background would help all.
Yes, I am a mean, short-tempered, overworked SOB (probably why I have 2 ex-wives and another that mostly ditched me in February). However, I try very hard to make CP fun and fair for all. I do it for free; actually it costs me to do it, but that's fine with me - I like it. I like smoking cigars, I smoke probably 5 a day. I like sharing with and meeting others who do the same.
The main problem peeps seem to have with me is removing 'deadwood'. Some reasons:
* If there is nobody on the waiting list, they are only taking up space, not hurting anyone because I would not declare deadwood a Winner
* They catch up & be a good Member (it has happened before)
* I am way way busy in my work (the emails you guys send with who to remove & why is a GREAT help)
* I am lazy
The only comment here that made me feel bad was the one that I don't respond to emails. I will respond *every* time to emails that: 1) are polite; 2) have something in it that asks a response (those that say 'kick this guy' but don't ask 'why are you not kicking this guy' aren't really asking anything - I will definitely look at kick that guy =); 3) anyone who just wants to 'shoot the sh@#'. Know this also please - I work in IT and used to post in many public forums without using spam-blocking measures - therefore I get about 200 emails a day, most of which are garbage. If an email even looks like junk, out it goes. This is not on purpose, just out of years of deleting so much junk, I skim subjects/senders very fast. Include 'CigarPool' in the subject and it will get through (as long as it doesn't say "cigarpool, want some v1@gkra?" =)
Rude emails (and sometimes even terse ones) get junked fast. Very fast. Sorry, but people are rude to me all day, I can't tolerate it in my free time.
I am generally very reasonable, a polite email with a reasonable request will always get a nice polite email in return. These cheer me up =D
I saw a couple of posts about starting your own CP. I wrote all the code that automates the running of the current one. Send me a personal email with your phone number if you are serious about wanting the code - under the right conditions, maybe I'll step aside or just give it out. This would make me sad, but for the good, I may do it. I'll probably keep the domain so I don't have to change my email addy, I've had it for years. But .net is probably available or I'll continue to host it.
Sorry to have caused so much grief...thx for playing,
Michael
== CigarPool ==
http://www.cigarpool.com
P.s. I think I'm the longest Member to have not won. I joined in Feb '97 when Irving Gold started CP and have never won. I changed numbers once and my old number hit =) and my current number hit for a previous Member.
since the last two, (88), the first two (88) and the first and last (88) are the only three combinations that qualify.
Again, many others and I fully understand what a PITA it can be so keep it going and we're glad you signed up here and are running "our" :laugh: pool for us 
:thumbs: 
