Hello gang,

As you all know, we now have reps from Savinelli, Alec Bradley, Drew Estate, and perhaps others who frequent our sub. Well, in response to this we will be implementing a simple change to the sub that is intended to help everyone recognize these fellow industry insiders. After all, who better to get info from than the actual makers and distributors of our favorite smokes? There are two reasons why we want to implement this:

1. We will verify these accounts to be sure they are who they claim to be and the small enhancement will let you guys easily see if the account has been verified
2. It a small token of appreciation for these guys offering their support to our community

So without further ado, here's the proposed change: click me

As you can see, it's a very modest change to the style for these users. The way this will work is that the user can contact us (we may contact them as well) and a verification process will take place to ensure that the account isn't a forgery. As part of this process, the user will send us an icon sized image such as their site's favicon (20px x 20px max). Once this has completed, I'll update the CSS and post an announcement.

Q. & A.

[Please ask questions and share your opinion in this post. I'll answer them and post updates here]

• Q. Won't this encourage spam?

• A. This is definitely not the intent. To be honest, with the exception of a couple of accounts, spam hasn't been much of an issue to date (and certainly not from these guys). I'm fairly confident that any reputable company would not risk being seeing as a spammer. However, if it becomes an issue, we'll deal with those accounts accordingly.

• Q. Who qualifies for this recognition?

• A. VIPs who intend to represent an official cigar company while on this sub. Initially, this will be limited to well known cigar manufacturers, distributors, and VIPs such as famous tobacco blenders.

• Q Is this live?

• A. No, I intend to start reaching out to the reps I know of (listed above) on Monday.

• Q. Is this open to B&Ms?

• A. No, not currently. There's a discussion below in the comments regarding the pros and cons of this. Feel free to discuss it there.