Since our debut in February of 2011, we have been rolling out feature after feature to make StogieRate.com the very best cigar inventory and review site on the web. We sacrificed looks in favor of developing what's under the hood. But now we have brought the look and feel of the site to the next level. We hired a graphic designer to revamp the entire look and feel of the site and, we think you'll agree, the results are impressive.
But that doesn't mean we are forgetting about the features. Along with the new look, we will also be streamlining and enhancing our functionality over the coming weeks and months. Our goal is to make the site as fast and easy to use as possible. You will also notice that there will be a closer connection between StogieRate.com and StogieFresh.info. We plan on leveraging each other's strengths to bring you the best of the best. Stogie Fresh is well-known in the industry for providing top-flight cigar education and resources. We will be connecting our StogieRate.com members to the new Stogie Fresh site via links directly to Stogie Fresh resources. On the other hand, Stogie Fresh will be depending on the superior database functions of StogieRate.com to provide a slick and powerful new interface for searching the Stogie Fresh reviews.
These are just some of the new and exciting things you will see at Stogie Rate. And, we intend to keep on rolling…. After the first of the year, you will see more contest and cigar giveaways, more new features and continual evolution as we strive to bring you the web's next "killer app."
All of us at StogieRate.com would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We look forward to reading your reviews and sharing more great features with you in the new year.
News blog for the web site www.stogierate.com
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
September 3rd, Stogie Rate Cigar Giveaway Winners!
As promised, we have selected 5 members who have written reviews on StogieRate.com between August 15th and September 3rd, and they will each receive an assorted 5-pack of cigars. Thank you to everyone who participated. There have been many terrific cigar reviews written recently, so keep up the good work!
Congratulations to our winners...
We hope that you enjoy the cigars, and will continue to enjoy the web site.
We'll be back with more updates soon, and until then, happy cigar smoking!
We'll be back with more updates soon, and until then, happy cigar smoking!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Review a Torpedo - Win a 5-pack!
It's been over a month since we last did a cigar giveaway. So, here we are with a new one!
As last time, the rules are simple.
As last time, the rules are simple.
- Be a Stogie Rate member.
- Write a review for any Torpedo shaped cigar.
- On the weekend of September 3rd, we will randomly select 5 winners who will each receive an assorted 5-pack of cigars!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Site updates - Humidor improvements and more
Since it has been a couple of weeks since we've posted an update, we would like to take a minute to highlight a few of our recent updates to the site. Our most recent updates are aimed squarely at making the lives easier for those of you storing very large collections of cigars.
We have several more enhancements currently in the works and will post another update once they are ready. As the amount of information that we store is growing, we are also considering new ways of tying the information together to enhancement its usefulness and make it easier to navigate.
As always, we love hearing feedback, and the best way to get the site working the way you want is to let us know!
Site Updates
We have several more enhancements currently in the works and will post another update once they are ready. As the amount of information that we store is growing, we are also considering new ways of tying the information together to enhancement its usefulness and make it easier to navigate.
As always, we love hearing feedback, and the best way to get the site working the way you want is to let us know!
Site Updates
- Both of the Dashboard and Humidor screens may now be sorted. For example, in the Dashboard view you can now sort your highest rated cigars from top to bottom.
- Both of the Dashboard and Humidor screens may now be searched with keywords. You can now look up your cigars via: Brand Name, Cigar Name, Size Name (e.g. Robusto, Toro etc.), Wrapper Type, and Collection Name. Simply type one or more key words into the text box and hit the Find button.
- We have added a new Collection Manager screen (accessible via the Tools drop down menu within the Humidor screen.) This screen allows you to add, delete, or rename your collections.
- We added an Edit Review button directly to the Review page for users viewing their own reviews. This saves you the time of needing to navigate to the My Reviews page. You will still need to use the My Reviews page to delete reviews however.
- If you see that we are missing a cigar size, you can now add the size to the Stogie Rate database directly from the cigar's detail page by clicking the link directly below the Available Vitolas list. Example cigar page.
- We revamped the FAQ page to be easier to use. We will be expanding the help topics listed in the FAQ in the near future as well.
- Bug Fixes: We fixed a bug affecting Internet Explorer users that would periodically double post a review or add a duplicate humidor entry when adding new cigars. We also fixed a bug in the Dashboard screen that periodically caused a few of the records to not display.
That's all for now. We hope that you will find these updates useful and enjoy using the site. Until next time, happy cigar smoking!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Stogie Rate Cigar Giveaway Update - Winners!
First of all, thank you to everyone who participated in our latest cigar giveaway. As is typical with our Stogie Rate members, there were a lot of fantastic cigar reviews written!
As detailed in our previous blog post, we are giving away 6 separate 5-packs of Macanudo 1968 Robusto sized cigars. We have selected our winners at random from the list of members who reviewed Robusto sized cigars during the eligible time period. So, without further delay, our winners are!
Congratulation to our winners! You will be contacted within a week via email about receiving your 5-pack of Macanudo cigars. We hope that you enjoy the cigars, and will let everyone on the site know what you think about them as well.
Thanks again to everyone who participated, and please stay tuned as we will certainly have more opportunities to win cigars coming up. We also have some fairly significant enhancements to the web site in the works right now, so keep an eye out for those as well.
Happy cigar smoking!
ABOUT STOGIERATE.COM
StogieRate.com is a software platform designed for cigar enthusiasts. It enables users to track cigar inventory, write and share reviews, and learn more about cigars via Stogie Fresh educational resources. The web site includes a large, searchable, and user editable cigar database, which also includes cigar band and cigar photos. StogieRate.com is dedicated to enhancing the cigar smoking experience for cigar enthusiasts and endeavors to provide new and unique tools that are easy and fun to use.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
NEW Stogie Rate Cigar Giveaway
Okay folks, we have a bunch of Macanudo 1968 Robusto 5-packs to giveaway to Stogie Rate members. In order to win, all you need to do is...
- Be a Stogie Rate member
- Write a review for any Robusto sized cigar
- On the weekend of July 16th, we will randomly select 6 winners and announce them on this blog.
That's all there is to it!
You can find out more about the Macanudo 1968 on the official website, and also check out a review by a Stogie Rate member.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Activities and hobbies to complement cigar smoking.
Jeremy here from Stogie Rate Online. As I am sitting here smoking a fine stogie on this Friday evening, I started to contemplate what are some hobbies or other activities that complement cigar smoking well. If you are like me and are often too busy to dedicate blocks of time to regular cigar smoking, or enjoy lots of different hobbies, then you start to look for creative ways to fit a cigar into your schedule.
The first two that come to my mind as being the most common companions to cigar smoking are golfing and fishing. I am not much into either of those two activities. For me personally, I recently started to enjoy astronomy. There are now fewer things that I enjoy more than sitting under the stars puffing a cigar!
Some others that I have thought of...
The first two that come to my mind as being the most common companions to cigar smoking are golfing and fishing. I am not much into either of those two activities. For me personally, I recently started to enjoy astronomy. There are now fewer things that I enjoy more than sitting under the stars puffing a cigar!
Some others that I have thought of...
- Reading
- Hiking
- Target shooting (if you have a suitable location to both shoot and light-up of course)
- Boating
- And of course... listening to Stogie Fresh 5 and writing reviews on Stogie Rate!
It would be interested to hear what other people combine with their cigar smoking. Feel free to leave a comment here and share your thoughts.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Site Enhancement: Easier inventory tracking
After considering feedback, we have stream lined inventory tracking for those of you writing reviews for your cigar batches stored in the Stogie Rate Humidor. Your remaining cigar stock can now be automatically updated when you write a review, saving you the need to remember to update the stock separately.
Here is how it works...
Step 1, access your Stogie Rate Online Humidor.
Step 2, click the Review button on the Cigar Batch for your cigar and launch the review writing screen.
Step 3, notice the new Reduce my stock check box directly below the Price per stick. If you check the box, then the remaining stock for the selected Cigar Batch will be automatically reduced by one when you post your review.
That's it!
For one final note, when viewing a cigar's Event Log from the Dashboard screen you will now see the Quantity field populated with a value when you post a review and check the reduce stock check box.
So, until next time, happy cigar smoking.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
New commenting and voting features are live on Stogie Rate
We are proud to announce that we have finished rolling out one of the larger updates to StogieRate.com since we went live in February. If you have not noticed already, you now have the capability to write comments on reviews posted to StogieRate.com. This is designed to make it easier to communicate with other reviewers directly within Stogie Rate itself and to leave your feedback.
In addition to the commenting capability, we have added voting buttons to each review that will allow you to quickly indicate whether or not you felt the review was helpful or not. The review votes will become even more useful over time as the total number of reviews on Stogie Rate grows, and we provide review sorting and filtering capabilities.
One final note regarding review comments. If you write a review on Stogie Rate, and another user leaves a comment on your review, then you will be automatically notified via email with the comment. If you do NOT wish to receive these email notifications, please follow these steps. Visit your Stogie Rate profile page, and under the Private Information and Account Settings section, un-check the check box labeled "Comment emails" and hit the Save Changes button.
That's it for now! We hope that you enjoy the new features, and we will be back very soon with even more. Happy cigar smoking.
In addition to the commenting capability, we have added voting buttons to each review that will allow you to quickly indicate whether or not you felt the review was helpful or not. The review votes will become even more useful over time as the total number of reviews on Stogie Rate grows, and we provide review sorting and filtering capabilities.
One final note regarding review comments. If you write a review on Stogie Rate, and another user leaves a comment on your review, then you will be automatically notified via email with the comment. If you do NOT wish to receive these email notifications, please follow these steps. Visit your Stogie Rate profile page, and under the Private Information and Account Settings section, un-check the check box labeled "Comment emails" and hit the Save Changes button.
That's it for now! We hope that you enjoy the new features, and we will be back very soon with even more. Happy cigar smoking.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Stogie Rate on the Web
Vincent over at the Three Guy's Cigars blog has written up a new review of Stogie Rate Online and offers some excellent feedback. Check it out!
We are looking forward to seeing more cigar reviews this year from the boys at Three Guy's.
We are looking forward to seeing more cigar reviews this year from the boys at Three Guy's.
Latest Stogie Rate Update (May 26th)
Another month has come and gone, and so, we wanted to give everyone an update. But first, let us get the bad news out of the way. Actually, there is no bad news! In fact, we are happy to say that there will be another cigar giveaway VERY SOON. Keep checking back for more on that.
So, what has been happening at Stogie Rate? Well, quite a bit actually. We've made a few minor visible tweaks and enhancements to the site (such as the new Cigar Review RSS feed for example); however, much more effort has gone into the "behind the scenes" aspects of the site and how it operates. We have especially focused on how we can better track and organize the cigar data in the Stogie Rate database. One of the reasons for taking the time to do this is so that we can provide higher quality cigar information to you, our users, and make it easier for you to find cigars. Over the coming weeks and months we will be able to put our new tools to the test!
Some of the other items that we have been up to are - looking for and correcting errors in the web site, communicating with users and responding to feedback (we love feedback!), backing up Stogie Rate data records and loading new cigar records and pictures. Every day, we ensure that we have a complete backup of everyone's data, so that if we experience a catastrophic site failure, we can get back on our feet with minimal data loss.
Finally, we've also planned out several new and exciting features that we will be implementing this summer. These features include enhancements to the humidor functionality as well as new social interactivity and communication capabilities. We hope that you continue to enjoy using the site!
StogieRate.com is a software platform designed for cigar enthusiasts. It enables users to track cigar inventory, write and share reviews, and learn more about cigars via Stogie Fresh educational resources. The web site includes a large, searchable, and user editable cigar database, which also includes cigar band and cigar photos. StogieRate.com is dedicated to enhancing the cigar smoking experience for cigar enthusiasts and endeavors to provide new and unique tools that are easy and fun to use.
ABOUT STOGIERATE.COM
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Stogie Rate Two Month Update
It's hard to believe, but it's time for another monthly update again! Stogie Rate is now officially two months old since its launch on February 26th. What's happened since our one-month update in March? Well, we had a little fun on April Fool's day where we released a randomized cigar picker. A few people have enjoyed using it so much that we're keeping it around and may refine and expand its capabilities. Also, during the month of April the site continued to grow quite well with the membership nearly doubling and hundreds of new cigars being added to the database. We also completed our cigar giveaway contest where we ended up giving away a total of 130 cigars to Stogie Rate members. We also participated (and will continue to support) the launch of Project Para Japón.
To coincide with our two-month anniversary, we have released several updates to the site. The first and most visible one is the new coat of paint on our home page. In addition, we are providing two new features for cigar reviewers to make writing reviews even easier.
1. Review templates. The templates provide pre-formatted review sections so that all you need to do is fill in your notes. We love you guys so much that we've thrown in a few templates named after several of our reviewers.
2. Review stop-watch. No more checking the clock! You can now activate a timer on the review page that will record exactly how many minutes it took you to complete the cigar.
On top of that, we fixed a few bugs in the web site (yes, even we make mistakes!)
Be sure to give these a try and let us know what you think. We're excited to provide these new updates to you, and we're even more excited about what we have planned next so stay tuned!
ABOUT STOGIERATE.COM
StogieRate.com is a software platform designed for cigar enthusiasts. It enables users to track cigar inventory, write and share reviews, and learn more about cigars via Stogie Fresh educational resources. The web site includes a large, searchable, and user editable cigar database, which also includes cigar band and cigar photos. StogieRate.com is dedicated to enhancing the cigar smoking experience for cigar enthusiasts and endeavors to provide new and unique tools that are easy and fun to use.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Stogie Rate Teams with Project Para Japón
Team Stogie Rate, in conjunction with Stogie Fresh and Project Para Japón, will be giving away ten 2-packs of the upcoming new cigar from La Aurora: "Para Japón."
The reason for the giveaways is so that you will be able to join with us in launching this new cigar on April 29th. To read about this Virtual Launch Party, please read the full article in the Stogie Fresh Cigar Journal: http://www.stogiefresh.com/
There is nothing you need to do to enter this contest other than be a registered Stogie Rate member. We will pick out and notify the winners this week and ask for your mailing addresses.
We hope that all winners will consider attending the virtual launch party and smoke the cigars along with us. We also hope you will write up your reviews of the Para Japón cigars and post those reviews in Stogie Rate Online.
Disclaimer: There are several other cigar websites and blogs that are conducting the same contest giveaway. No person can win more than one time. So, we will be asking if you have won these cigars from another site and will have to eliminate those people who have already won a 2-pack.
The reason for the giveaways is so that you will be able to join with us in launching this new cigar on April 29th. To read about this Virtual Launch Party, please read the full article in the Stogie Fresh Cigar Journal: http://www.stogiefresh.com/
There is nothing you need to do to enter this contest other than be a registered Stogie Rate member. We will pick out and notify the winners this week and ask for your mailing addresses.
We hope that all winners will consider attending the virtual launch party and smoke the cigars along with us. We also hope you will write up your reviews of the Para Japón cigars and post those reviews in Stogie Rate Online.
Disclaimer: There are several other cigar websites and blogs that are conducting the same contest giveaway. No person can win more than one time. So, we will be asking if you have won these cigars from another site and will have to eliminate those people who have already won a 2-pack.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
CONGRATULATIONS to third-round winners of the Stogie Rate Online Launch Contest
Our Stogie Rate Launch Contest has officially come to a close with our third round of winners. More premium cigars will be mailed this week to our most recent winners, who are listed below. Congratulations to all 12 of our winners. During this premier contest we gave away 130 cigars!
LAUNCH CONTEST ENDS BUT THE JOURNEY CONTINUES...
Though our launch contest is finished, the journey has only begun. You can expect more great new promotions in the future. Keep checking back to our Stogie Rate News page and also follow us on Twitter for the latest happenings.
WINNERS (listed by Stogie Rate screen name)
Cigars in this Shipment:
JR Special Selection
SEE OUR PREVIOUS WINNERS
Friday, April 1, 2011
NEW Breakthrough for Cigar Smokers!
April 1st, 2011. Cure the C.R.A.P.S. with Cigar Picker
As cigar smokers begin to amass more and more cigars in their humidors, they begin to develop the C.R.A.P.S. This is a devastating problem that affects their cigar… movements. Do you have the C.R.A.P.S.? Let's find out…
Here's the scenario: you crack open your favorite humidor to select the next cigar to smoke. Five or more minutes may pass while you sift through your cigars. You occasionally hold one to your nose for a whiff and then gingerly place it back into the humidor only to do the same with another cigar a minute later. If this is a regular feature of your experience, you are suffering from what we have now diagnosed as Cigar Retentive Analysis Paralysis Syndrome (or C.R.A.P.S.)
A person with the C.R.A.P.S. simply cannot decide which cigar he is going to smoke next! In fact, it has now been scientifically proven that the probability of a cigar smoker suffering from C.R.A.P.S. is directly proportional to several factors involving both the size and variety of their cigar collection. We won't bore you with all of the scientific studies, charts and formulas developed by Team Stogie Rate to determine such probabilities. Suffice it say, we have discovered that a key variable in our formulas is the square root of the sum of total inventory and the product of total number of cigar brands and total number of humidors over the average ring gauge of cigars, added to your ratio of maduro to natural wrapper cigars. This is absolutely true!
Fortunately, you don't need to worry. We have developed a solution for those suffering from C.R.A.P.S. Using a proprietary algorithm that analyzes your personal cigar collection, we can automatically choose the right cigar for you.
To cure the C.R.A.P.S. simply access the Pick My Cigar feature on Stogie Rate Online. Visit your Humidor page and click the link. You never have to think twice again about which cigar you're going to smoke next!
As cigar smokers begin to amass more and more cigars in their humidors, they begin to develop the C.R.A.P.S. This is a devastating problem that affects their cigar… movements. Do you have the C.R.A.P.S.? Let's find out…
Here's the scenario: you crack open your favorite humidor to select the next cigar to smoke. Five or more minutes may pass while you sift through your cigars. You occasionally hold one to your nose for a whiff and then gingerly place it back into the humidor only to do the same with another cigar a minute later. If this is a regular feature of your experience, you are suffering from what we have now diagnosed as Cigar Retentive Analysis Paralysis Syndrome (or C.R.A.P.S.)
A person with the C.R.A.P.S. simply cannot decide which cigar he is going to smoke next! In fact, it has now been scientifically proven that the probability of a cigar smoker suffering from C.R.A.P.S. is directly proportional to several factors involving both the size and variety of their cigar collection. We won't bore you with all of the scientific studies, charts and formulas developed by Team Stogie Rate to determine such probabilities. Suffice it say, we have discovered that a key variable in our formulas is the square root of the sum of total inventory and the product of total number of cigar brands and total number of humidors over the average ring gauge of cigars, added to your ratio of maduro to natural wrapper cigars. This is absolutely true!
Fortunately, you don't need to worry. We have developed a solution for those suffering from C.R.A.P.S. Using a proprietary algorithm that analyzes your personal cigar collection, we can automatically choose the right cigar for you.
To cure the C.R.A.P.S. simply access the Pick My Cigar feature on Stogie Rate Online. Visit your Humidor page and click the link. You never have to think twice again about which cigar you're going to smoke next!
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Latest News, Winners, and our One-Month Anniversary!
Today, we have a longer news post as we would like to announce our second round winners, and also talk about what's been happening with the web site recently and where we are headed.
On the Agenda
On the Agenda
- Our Second Round Winners
- One-Month Site Update
- Where We are Headed and Your Feedback
- A Few Statistics
So, without further delay!
Our Second Round Winners
Our launch contest is heating up again as our second winners have now been announced. More premium cigars will be mailed this week to our most recent winners. Eligibility for our contest is the same: become a registered user of Stogie Rate and post a minimum of 5 reviews during the 2-week contest period. Winners were chosen at random from the list of eligible users. So congratulations for our second group of winners.
WINNERS (listed by Stogie Rate screen name)
Cigars in this Shipment:
LAUNCH CONTEST CONTINUES...
There will be more 4 more winners over the next 2-weeks. The contest rules remain the same and contestants must have five or more reviews to be eligible to win. We will pick winners at random and will post those winners on this news page. Click here if you would like to see our previous winners.
One-Month Site Update
That's right! We have now been officially live for a month.
First on our list of updates is that we have released a major new feature this weekend. Here at Stogie Rate, we love data. In fact, we love lots and lots of data. What we love even more is "portable" data. If you take the time to enter a bunch of information into a website, you should be able to easily get it back out. And that is exactly what we are now providing with the ability to both import and export humidor inventory records. You can import inventory files from the Stogie Rate for Desktop and iPhone, and we also support a more generic CSV file format. Additionally, you can now export all of your inventory and reviews from Stogie Rate Online in a format that may be loaded by either Stogie Rate for Desktop or iPhone. We plan to expand the export capabilities down the road as well to support even more formats.
We have also added three new questions into our F.A.Q. that answer questions about our file import process and our recommended ways of using it.
Second on our list is that we would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has visited the site, posted reviews, utilized our cigar inventory tools, and read our educational material. We sincerely hope that you are enjoying your time on the site, and that you will visit us often and help build a one of a kind online cigar community.
Where We are Headed and Your Feedback
Over the coming months, we plan to continue to add new features to the site and improve and streamline existing ones. We would like to expand on the information that we store about cigars, provide new ways of exploring that information, and find ways to increase the value and usefulness of your cigar inventory information to you. Having said that, we greatly value your feedback and suggestions. We would like to hear from you on what new features you would like to see, and what existing features should be improved and streamlined. As always, you can either use our Contact Form or shoot us an email at feedback@stogierate.com
A Few Statistics
Since the site is now a month old, we thought it might be fun to calculate a few statistics and share them with you. And now on with the stats parade...
Total Stogie Rate Cigar Inventory for All Users: 8113
Average Overall Score for All Cigar Reviews: 88.01
Highest Single Cigar Rating: 98.2 (Tatuaje, Black Label Private Reserve)
Worst Single Cigar Rating: 59.8 (Gurkha Legend Torpedo)
Most Community Reviewed Brands
Most Favorited Cigar Brands
Average Reviewed Price per Stick (USD): $6.86
Average Body/Strength/Flavor Profile
Sunday, March 13, 2011
CONGRATULATIONS to first winners of the Stogie Rate Online Launch Contest
Our launch contest has produced its first winners, whose winnings in the form of some premium cigars, will be mailed this week. Eligibility for our contest was simple: become a registered user of Stogie Rate and post a minimum of 5 reviews during our first 2-week contest period. Winners were chosen at random from the list of eligible users. So congratulations for our first winners.
WINNERS (listed by Stogie Rate screen name)
Cigars in this Shipment:
MORE CIGARS AND MORE WINNERS
There will be more winners over the next 4-weeks. The contest rules remain the same and contestants must have five or more reviews to be eligible to win. We will pick winners at random and will post those winners on this news page.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Social Networking features add greater dimension to your Stogie Rate experience
We are working hard to make Stogie Rate a place where you come every day to read and write reviews to share with your brothers and sisters of the leaf. We also want you to be able to interact with other Stogie Rate users via our social networking features. You may have already noticed that Stogie Rate offers ways to connect with Twitter and Facebook. Using buttons found on every review page, you can quickly and easily share your favorite reviews with your "followers" and "friends." You can also use the Stogie Rate PROFILE page and FOLLOW links to include Stogie Rate "Buddies." To take full advantage of future social networking features, be sure to fill in your profile as completely as possible on your PROFILE page.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
New review features, F.A.Q., and Buddy List released
If you run your own web site or blog, you may be interested in a new feature that we are providing for review writers. You may now insert a hyperlink into your StogieRate.com review that links back to your own web site or blog. This feature is intended to allow you to provide additional cigar photos or review details from your own site.
Please refer to our new F.A.Q. for details about how to use this feature in your reviews.
Additionally, you may now also perform simple formatting to your review text, such as using bold and italics. This is also covered in the F.A.Q.
Finally, we've added a simple Buddy List feature that will help you keep tabs on other reviewers that you are interested in following on Stogie Rate. To add someone to your Buddy List, simply visit their profile page and click the Follow button at the top of the page. That user will now display on your Buddy List on the front page. We are going to keep expanding the capabilities of the Buddy List in the near future to make it easier to find the reviewers that you are interested in.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
StogieRate.com Launch and Cigar Giveaway
StogieRate.com is about to launch! To help celebrate, we are giving away boxes and 6-packs of cigars. Find out more details.
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