@drac2485, how do you distinguish an online club from a forum? I meet up occasionally with some fo the guys in my area that are active in another forum.
I'm a member and pretty active with some of the organizers of Distinguished Ruffians, Briar Nation, and Pipe and Beard Club on IG. I am also a founding member of the Briar Brothers (we have a running Voxer chat. But there is something to actually being present and there with others, thus a friend and I started a local pipe club, Smoke Stack Pipe Club. We will be having our first meet up on Aug 4. We are pretty pumped!
i am a member of 3 other forums..i am very active in one and the other two i check in on every now and then..but the membershiphas many crossover members so i mhave a feel for whats going on in the other groups
I'm active here and on IG. I have an account for the christian pipe smokers forums, but I mainly lurk there.
Maybe because I'm an introvert, but I find it difficult to get into a pipe community when the members there are the old guard, and you have to stick around and prove yourself there. It's not limited to pipe forums, but forums in general. If I can get into a forum when it's early, like here, then I'm much more inclined to post and stay.
@pipeprofessor How did the first meeting of your pipe club go? I'm starting to try and get into some of those IG groups as I find them very interesting and its fun seeing and interacting with brothers of the leaf.
@thebadgerpiper I completely understand and agree with your comment about the old guard. Its the one thing that has kept me away from most other pipe/cigar forums.
@drac2485 - I participate on two other pipe forums and the "Old Guard" on those are open to helping any newbie that shows up and I was never once asked or felt the need to prove myself. I continually see pipe tobacco reviews on those sites by people with fewer than 20 posts, and they are all well received and garner numerous comments.
@pappyjoe my experience was several years ago and I kept getting responses from the "old guard" of "there is already a post on that" "that was already discussed" among others to the point I never went back to those forums. At the time being newer to pipes I was very disappointed in how the "old guard" responded to a new pipe smoker, especially in a well established forum. As new pipe smoker trying to get answers there was a pain, the expectation of the "old guard" that you would read every topic and every page on the forum and I was chastised for repeating previous discussions when I didn't see them amongst the 100+ discussion with 20+ pages of responses per discussion. All in all it just left a bad taste in my mouth so I am loving this group and doing what I can to help those.
@drac2485 Thanks for asking! It went very well! Lots of great information was shared, as were many new types of tobacco! There were also many, many unreal pipes!
My experience with the old guard wasn't as bad, but difficult for someone like me. By the time I had joined, the forum had been around for around eight years. During that time, strong bonds formed between members, in-jokes created, and habits made.
I would look in a thread, see this conversation between members, and have a difficult time figuring out how to add my own opinion. It's not that they weren't friendly, or looked down on newbies. For them, newbies came and went, and it was hard to stick around and join the old guard.
I used to hate the "Old Guard" when I was in the service. Then the day came around where I woke up and realized that I was now part of the old guard and that was part of my decision to retire after 21 years.
I haven't had a problem with the old guard on the pipe forums, probably because I'm old and don't give a flying dog feces what they think anyway. I made friends with some of them and just verbally whack them over the head when they get too full of themselves.
Distinguished Ruffian member on IG. Christian Pipe Smokers and The Daily Piper on Facebook. Also I am a not so active member on Pipes magazine and Pipe smokers forum.
I have been trying to become a Distinguished Ruffian member. I sent in my application and a pic, maybe I am not Ruffian enough. I am a member of BriarNation just waiting for there website to come back up.
I watch a lot of different YouTube Pipe Presenters but as for pipe groups or forums ... this is the only group I'm a part of. I figure the accumulated knowledge of the members right here should teach me everything I need to know. Plus it's a friendly group and I feel quite comfortable here.
Reddit /r/pipetobacco is a decent community. Member of a wet-shaving forum with a great brown leaf sub community. Corn Cob nation on facebook is decent too.
Haven't done much with IG but will occasionally post a daily pipe photo and get some more followers and likes.
Comments
Maybe because I'm an introvert, but I find it difficult to get into a pipe community when the members there are the old guard, and you have to stick around and prove yourself there. It's not limited to pipe forums, but forums in general. If I can get into a forum when it's early, like here, then I'm much more inclined to post and stay.
I would look in a thread, see this conversation between members, and have a difficult time figuring out how to add my own opinion. It's not that they weren't friendly, or looked down on newbies. For them, newbies came and went, and it was hard to stick around and join the old guard.