I have some thoughts on this whole vaping thing i felt like spelling out. Im a noob of about 6 weeks. I dont even have my ADV figured out yet. Maybe once I get settled in my feelings on this whole thing will change. A new vapors feeling and views are actually quite important. Everyone goes through this stage. Some stick through it and some don't. Im choosing to stick through it.
I get the impression that most vapers here like the way the vaping world is structured and want it to stay the way it is. I disagree and I believe if it stays the way it is it will not survive. Its new and I get that but from what ive seen a large part of the vaping world is mom and pop, basement and low budget setups. I do see there are bigger vendors putting out better products but they are very few and far between relative to the numbers. I dont want the FDA to ban it. I dont want big pharm to control it either but I feel like something more needs to happen to vaping. I feel like it needs science and money to create facts and hard evidence about it. I feel like everything I try to figure out about vaping is full of speculation and rumors. Ive been obsessed with vaping research for the last month on every topic you can think of but I find few facts. All I get is what Johnny thinks works but billy says thats crap and his way works better. I order ejuice that has poison and chemicals is it and jo blow is mixing it up in his basement. Who the hell is jo blow? I need juice but I want Dr science mixing it up using his sterile lab to analyze it before he sends it to me. I don't want juice I need to steep. I shouldnt have to steep a product im buying. I dont need to steep Blu cartos. I guarantee Dr Science and his team of nerds could figure out just what the whole steeping thing is and take care of the whole thing for me. All anyone really knows about steeping is what seems to work for them. Im inhaling juice as a healthier alternative to smoking and thats what I want it to be. I dont want to buy it from a guy trying to make a buck in his free time, buying ingredients from god knows where, mixing it up while he watches tv with no shirt on. I want the health department watching where he does it, what he puts in it and how the final product turns out.
It goes beyond the juice making. I think the whole industry is being held up not wanting bigger players to step in. I want science and technology to prefect e-cigs. I want the learning curve to be straightened out but until then I will keep doing what the rest of you are doing, learning through trial and error.
The LAST thing that the vaping industry needs, is for government to step in. Goverment has ceased being a consistently fair impartial or just entity, and all too often falls into the role of being a club one side of any given issue uses to beat those on the other side over the head with. Such could much too easily be the case with vaping.
You can see this on many many issues. We ALREADY have the ignorant preaching their ignorance on vaping in many cases, the anti-smoking people falling in line behind them. And I say that as someone that hopes to never again smoke another cig but also thinks that in many if not most cases, the anti-tobacco people, the anti-soda people the anti gun people and a few other antis for that matter, could get a life and stop telling everyone else how to live theirs, and make the country a much better place in the process. We've become a nation of people that think its our business to tell everyone else how to live. /rant off
In some ways, I too wish the industry wasn't in its infancy, and that it was more matured in terms of technology. I'd like to see more anodized goodies for the ego threads for example - anodized aluminum tank cones for example. But I'd MUCH rather have it how it is, than over regulated and filled with red tape - or subject to the self appointed morality brigade. And, I'd rather have it how it is NOW, with me able to continue to be able to use a device and liquid which are granted, not perfect, but DO keep me off analogues, AND are far less harmful than the analogues are to my health and tantis.
Chevrolet and ford were once "mom and pop", and trying to make a buck in their spare time too. Nothing starts out big, and nothing is ever final or finished or done evolving. Much like many mmo players - WE are the testers - in terms of equipment and in terms of juice flavor in our case. These "mom and pop" shops you refer to, they are and have been making devices, flavors, changes, and improvements based on feedback they get from us - their customers. They talk to us, we talk to them, and they listen. This industry is growing at a frankly fantastic rate because of it. Trust me, government involvement beyond a certain point isn't going to help that. And, "Dr Science and his team of nerds" once created thalidamide and tested l$D on prison inmates, and sprayed Serratia and Bacillus microbes on entire cities in tests, so don't be so quick to put your trust in them.
What you're looking for, and talking about, when you say "what Johnny thinks works but billy says thats crap and his way works better", is a single flavor of ciggs that work for everyone - clearly, analogue cigs do not work that way. Or a single flavor of pizza that works for everyone. Again, clearly not meshing with reality. Do you like your soda out of a can? Or out of a bottle? What about everyone that likes it the other way from you...are they wrong? The point - is that you're looking for something that will not happen, because it can not happen, because people don't work that way. Think of it more along the lines of your chosen cigarette brand going belly up. Some people are gonna tell you winstons are great. Others are going to say merit. others yet will say marlboro. Well, damn, none of those are your camels, right? Its going to take time for you to find something you like again, and you might NEVER find something you'll like, but you'll adapt - you have to - because you're an addict (assuming you were/are a smoker, most of us were). Let that sink in a minute. Yes, you are an addict.
I don't think the industry is being held up at all. Theres simply no jumping from b or c where were at, to z, where you want things to be, and "bigger players" aren't going to make it happen any faster, nor are they going to make it happen any better. Right now, the industry is being driven by the people that support it, and as long as that remains the case, it will go where, how, and as it should.
If you want things to go faster and better, support the industry. Support the people working their butts off to improve things for we addicts. Get involved. Give feedback to the people that are making the hardware and juices. Discuss things with others with greater and lesser levels of experience, learn when and where you can, and give back by teaching others what you've learned when an opportunity presents itself.
Be part of the solution.
but we here at ECF are like you 
