Ex-smokers? Or just new hobbyists? what happened to us?

[Oriana871]

This post is rushed but some other points to consider:

1. People ask questions here, often similar questions that are repeated, and people answer those questions, so the answers are often repeated. So discussions about attys and cartos and Stardusts and tanks and mods and juice, etc. well, may sound like it's overkill but the majority of the time it's just an attempt to relay one's experience using certain things that is helpful to others.

2. I can't sit with my friends and show them my VV Mod or my Phiniac tank or discuss what gear makes my vaping experience enjoyable, cause they'll mostly just look at me like, you know . So yeah I'll share that here, maybe it's a little showing off, but at least there is some appreciation at ECF that I wouldn't get anywhere else.

 

[bigpman]

I agree with oriana, this the only place I can show off my pride and joys, most of my friends, including my DW, could care less about my toys.

This has definitely turned into a hobby for me, maybe even an obsession

 

[fourtytwo]

I can see a lot of excellent points here but as a relative noob, I can also say that the hobbyist mentality can be off putting to someone coming here to learn.
In the New Members forum, I can see a number of post from people just looking for information on how to quit smoking. They may not be here long term but they are here now and we can help.
Someone might ask what a good starting setup is and immediately, 10 people answer with 10 different suggestions. They might range from a eGo starter to a Darwin, Provari etc. Then there will follow endless posts about which LR carto, tank or atty is best and what voltage to use or if dripping is the only true way to vape.
Suddenly, a simple question on how to get off cigarettes has turned into a learning curve that makes a doctorate look easy in comparison.
Like I said, I'm a noob. I've only been vaping for about a month and off cigs for less then 3 weeks. However, this is the second time I looked into vaping.
The first time was last winter and after some of the information I read on this forum and a few others, I just said "screw this!!!" and reached for my Rothmans...
The fact of the matter is that some people here are hobbyists and some are just quitting smoking. Both should be welcome on their own terms.

I should add that most of the replies here in the Canada sub-forum are very helpful. Most of the elitist hobbyist replies seem to be in the New Members forum.

 

[Tgoode]

Cigarettes are addictive, but they're hardly captivating. They stink, they produce ash, they slowly kill you, people who smoke are pariahs.

Vaping and e-cigs are novel. They captivate their users. They eliminate the stink, ask, cancer risk, yellow fingers, etc. people use ecigs all over the place.

Somewhere between those two ideas is the answer to your question.

 

[Squish]

I think it's definitely an adictive hobby. I have what I like, and I'm sticking with it, hardware wise. Sampling juice however is just the best. I love trying different juice flavors, and a definate perk IMO is all the delicious options out there. ECF is the only tool I have to learn about what's out there. Of course it's not the same as analogs, it's way better!

Analogs have years and years of design and research, they use those insane ingredients (like ammonia) to provide the immediate aborbtion of the nicotine. Big Tobbaco could care less who they kill with thier products. They simply don't deserve our money. U tube The Tobacco Conspiracy, it'll help get the analogs out of your heads.

 

[redmerc]

I guess I'm the odd man out. I vape to not smoke that's all, it is not and never will be a hobby. I'm not interested in the least about a giant battery or a big piece of chrome that's bigger than my electric toothbrush. I'm very happy with the gear that I have.

I started with an eGo-c starter kit and if it had worked as I hoped, that would have been that. So, now use Boge 2.0 cartos and Stardusts. Thankfully I found out about them here, or I don't know what would have happened vape wise or smoking wise.

I have my 2 650 batteries that came with the starter kit and a 1000 pass-through for home use, all eGo stuff, and I'm just not interested in anything else. I hope it stays that way.

Juice wise, I'm not one that wants a ton of different flavours either. I'm still looking for the ADV and when I do find it, that will be that also. I can see myself with a light tasting juice and heavier one, but I don't need more than that.

I still check in here at least once a day as there is always something to learn, and regardless of our gear, we're all in the same boat with the same goal of not smoking.

 

[WolfeReign]

~slips on old fart science doctor glasses~

In the millennia, where it is now a information age, where we have closed the gap of the distance that would say years before kept us apart from regions of Russia or China, with a mere simple click of a mouse button, or tape of the key, you are brought to a new plateau of where your higher existence now thrives. This new existence has lead to world society or a social village to have their very views of the internet changed. How far do we go when the mere term of "we met on the internet" meant fear and apprehension, while nay sayers would encourage a break up or fight, but now is widely accepted? While you turn on your computer this is in truth the same as opening your front door and going for a walk down the road. Your style of font creating your pyscial looks, your colour of said font now the cloths you where, and your punctuation your tone of voice.

With finding people of like mindsets and passion, you soon find yourself with what is in truth a second family. You have your aunt's, your uncle's, your grand parents and yes even to a point your parents. Even here on ECF, a person being twenty years old and be a great grandfather, while someone of fifty years of age can assume the roll of a young child.

This has then in turn engaged our need to succeed and subconsciously have to full fill the need to have acceptance..a proverbial smile and pat on the back saying you have come a long way my child, your parents are very proud of you.

ECF serve's as the go between point for you are honestly ending a addiction. Have we all not heard of Alcoholics Anonymous? Do they not celebrate each others anniversaries of sobriety? If they were to find a new food, style of clothes, or even a book to read, would we then say they are in truth the proverbial medium-guzzlers?

Let us look quickly at someone smoking a cigarette, and lets they have ran out. What is the first thing the smoker tries to do? They well eat a carrot more then likely. Why? first off it is due to the fact there is something in the hand regardless of weight, and the mere act of raising hand to mouth is but satisfying the psychological addiction which cannot be removed, for the mind knows that with the raising of the hand to mouth would bring the much needed Catalysis to bind with flowing neurons and nerve's thus created a chemical that is by far more potent and lethal then any narcotic ever created.

This being said, sure it could appear to the new person (which is were the slang n00b came from. Incidental it is derived from the term newbie) that those who has gone on ahead of you suffer from the buydisanddat but they are now finding where their new found comfort zone, ability, and essentially what can they offer for the shared survival of the village. Which after you yourself have come to the end of your "struggle" (i assure you the term is used loosely) to claim your own digital identification, and persona.

The Ops, or Elmers that seem to be encouraging and effecting fellow members of the village with the buydisanddat flu, they are in truth in the fore front assuring that you have the right and privilege to continue your walk, safe and secure in your new found hobby.

~removes the glasses and tucks them away~

Just my 0.02 cents from the comment peanut gallery

---and see? i was nice i did not flame you.....i just gave you a college lecture

 

[kingcobra]

First off, if cigarettes cost the same and didn't harm your health I'd still be vaping. As I've said, perhaps surprisingly, those things don't matter to me all that much. Actually, the harm to your health from cigarettes can be mitigated for the most part anyway, but that's another topic altogether and one well beyond this thread

For me, it is all about the subjective experience, the high if you will, and I'm already at the stage where vaping makes me feel better. That's why I quit smoking, after over a year of smoking a cigarette and feeling on the crappy side, then vaping and feeling better, I decided to see what happened if you just vaped. It has been a struggle but I feel I now have broken through to the other side and it's nicer over here.

With all of the money people save from vaping instead of smoking, it's not surprising that people have taking up vaping as not only a substitute for smoking, but as collectors as well. Nothing wrong with that I guess, if people feel that they are getting the benefit from buying all this vaping stuff then who are we to question it Sure beats collecting cigarette butts, ashes, and empty packs

I'm much more of the mindset that you find something you really like and then go with it. I started with an Ego-T back in March 2011. It seemed to be decent at first, but when I tried the 510-T that was much better. I actually wanted a Darwin and I wanted to try out the 510-T atties, I ended up loving them, and soon ditched those small batts for the Darwin. So I've been using that setup for 9 months now, there's new gear out there but I haven't seen anything I want to try as far as atties or carts go.

That's partly because I am super satisfied now, and I'd need something that fits my PV and allows me to close the arm, has a tank, none of that crappy filler, easy to use, doesn't leak or have any other problems, vapes real nice, etc. So I have something that offers all of that. I thought about trying dripping but I don't want to drip into filler, I don't want to ruin my PV by getting juice in it, and overall that sounds like a pain in the ... anyway. Its not that I am lazy but convenience means a lot to me and that sure as hell isn't

As far as my PV, I don't get why anyone would use anything else really. Once again I like convenience, I just move that little wheel to set the wattage I want depending on the juice. I see a lot of people are interested in adding the kick, that's an inferior way to go and sounds more like people who wish they had a Darwin and want to get a cheap imitation where you have to take it apart and fiddle with a screwdriver to change the wattage. Even having to deal with batteries instead of just plugging this thing in for a while into the USB charger while it sits on my desk and I vape it seems to be way too bothersome

So yeah I love the Darwin and love 510-t atties so I don't have any interest in trying out anything else, so I guess I'm not a collector

 

[talion]

Don’t get me wrong guys. I drank the Kool-Aid and I’m here too, just like you. I just can’t help but notice the shift in cultural norms between one group and the other. It’s interesting to me because vaping is strictly an adult activity (at this point) and the industry (again so far) isn’t looking to create new vapers from scratch, unlike the tobacco industry. Instead it’s trying to convert smokers. It’s also interesting that the community itself does that, as opposed to the industry. Vapers are missionaries. Smokers aren’t. Smoking, despite its obvious hazards and negative press, still has a “cool” cachet attached to it that vaping doesn’t, but vapers are more immersed and more discriminating than smokers are.

What makes this so interesting is that both of these groups come from the same people. Almost by definition (at this stage in the vaping evolution) vapers were once smokers. I don’t have to tell any of you what the social experience was while smoking, so the vast changes that have come from the transition should be obvious to you guys too. When you smoked, you smoked. Now when you’re vaping how many of you find yourselves telling people all about it?

I also wonder whether the perceived lack of hazards in vaping have eliminated the geas that people had to quit. Does vaping gives us all an excuse to continue doing what we want to do while removing the guilt associated with it? Does this make sense, given that we all know that regardless of the relative safety of vaping the safest and healthiest thing to do would be to neither vape nor smoke?

I’m curious. How many of you are planning to quit vaping within the next year?

It’s also interesting to me that new smokers don’t have instruction guides to follow. You just get a smoke from an acquaintance, cough a bunch of times, then go buy a pack and start smoking. Vaping requires training. The training starts with smoking as the base, and then you build incrementally from there. You must have Vaping 101 under your belt before you start. In the initial stages new vapers are pretty much forced to go to the internet. They may not stay there but where did we all go to learn about vaping initially? It’s an internet based business, so people almost have to come through forums or be guided by people currently vaping. So who does the teaching? The hobbyists. They are the ones who are maintain the conversation and sharing the info. I’d like to disabuse any notion that I use the word “hobbyist” in any kind of negative connotation, btw. I’m trying to impart the sense of knowledge and enthusiasm, rather than trying to be pejorative. Who better to learn from? Who better to impart enthusiasm? I do mention this because some of you have minimized the the size and the impact of the hobbyists on the forums, but I would guess that a significant percentage of the vaping community, whether they frequent the forums or not, have gotten much of their information and their ideas/prejudices from their contacts with forums like this one.

 

[PoliticallyIncorrect]

...Whatever else they may or not be, cigarettes are real and a real taste, not an imitation. Vaping is always an imitation of the real thing.

There's truth to that only up to a point—and it applies only to cigarette-lookalike devices filled with tobacco flavors. When everything from blueberries to banana cream pie to bacon to baby-back ribs appeared in devices that bore no resemblance to a Marlboro , a break was made from a smoking imitation to a smoking alternative, and a passion in its own right, for its own purposes.

 

[talion]

There's truth to that only up to a point—and it applies only to cigarette-lookalike devices filled with tobacco flavors. When everything from blueberries to banana cream pie to bacon to baby-back ribs appeared in devices that bore no resemblance to a Marlboro , a break was made from a smoking imitation to a smoking alternative, and a passion in its own right, for its own purposes.

I disagree here. Not to belabour the point, but vaping has always been a smoking alternative. When discussing the flavour, tobacco e-juice is an imitation of tobacco, not the real thing. That doesn't mean you won't grow to like it as much, but it's still an imitation. Adding fruit and pastry and whatever flavours didn't change the imitation from being an imitation, it simply expanded the variety of imitations available. banana cream pie e-juice is not banana cream pie, no matter how tasty the juice.

Once again this is not to say that people can't enjoy it just as much or be just as passionate about it, but it is what it is.

 

[fourtytwo]

I can't really agree with you on the idea that smoking has still has a coolness cachet associated with it. Society has changed in most of the western world to the point where many feel embarrassed about smoking. We are constantly bombarded with info on the health hazards and many of us know former smokers who are evangelical in their crusade to rid the world of cigarettes.
Smoking is definitely easy. We are/were trained by watching others in life and in movies. There are even a great many Youtube videos demonstrating tricky ways of lighting Zippos.
When one comes to vaping, there is already a commitment to leave smoking as the start up cost is not inconsiderable. I think that this and other factors translates to a far greater level of enthusiasm for our new found hobby/addiction ???
I've called vaping, more then a little "Fringe" and I still believe that. I don't mean it in any negative sense of the word. It is still shrouded in misconceptions in the mainstream media and spotting another vaper as you go about your day is noteworthy to most here. If we see media coverage, negative or positive, we tend to post it here. If we vape in public, we endure odd looks or end up spending time explaining what it is.
At the same time, I don't use the term Hobbyist as a derogatory label either. The hobbyist are those that seem to be driving vaping forward and I am thankful to them for where vaping is today. The difficulty I see is in those cases where the zeal for the best/most powerful/flashiest has put up a barrier to those who may not want to commit to learning about ohms, voltage sag and the benefits of VG vs PG. They may not want to spend $300+ for a mod until they can be sure this is something they can live with.
I don't know if I plan on quitting vaping in a year. 2 months ago, I did not know that I would be quitting smoking.

 

[PoliticallyIncorrect]

I disagree here...tobacco e-juice is an imitation of tobacco, not the real thing. That doesn't mean you won't grow to like it as much, but it's still an imitation. Adding fruit and pastry and whatever flavours didn't change the imitation from being an imitation, it simply expanded the variety of imitations available. banana cream pie e-juice is not banana cream pie, no matter how tasty the juice.

We'll have to agree to disagree—quite alright, as this is nothing but semantics—but what was the last time you inhaled—literally—banana cream pie? To be sure, E-juice isn't banana cream pie, but vaping isn't an imitation of eating it; it is what it is: vaping.

 

[talion]

We'll have to agree to disagree—quite alright, as this is nothing but semantics—but what was the last time you inhaled—literally—banana cream pie? To be sure, E-juice isn't banana cream pie, but vaping isn't an imitation of eating it; it is what it is: vaping.

I understand exactly what you're trying to say, and can appreciate the point. I think we're both circling around the intersection of our points, which is that vaping is its own unique experience. I think, imitation or not, that the enjoyment is in itself a type of enjoyment unique to vaping, which I think we both agree on. We don't have to agree on the substance of the flavours, because ultimately we are in agreement on the central point. Let's not sweat the small stuff.

 

[fourtytwo]

Excellent points but then, I think, this leads to the question of why. For the most part, I see two divergent motivations.
Some see it simply as a smoking cessation tool (although, for legal reasons, none of the vendors or manufacturers). Others will see it as a pleasurable pastime in of itself.
I think most start in the former category and migrate to the latter.
Does this indicate that vaping is a new addiction without the antisocial connotations that smoking has in many places?
We all know that we are susceptible to addictions as almost all of use were smokers in the past (I suspect all but its hard to use such generalizations).
I think, for some, the migration to "Rabid Hobbyist" is simply enthusiasm for a pastime that has enabled them to beat an addiction that is, arguably, one of the most difficult to beat.
I have some measure of pride kicking cigs and know I have vaping to thank for it. If I become "Rabid" at some stage in the future, I am confident/hopeful that my friends will have mercy and not put me down...

 

[Nikkita6]

I have to say that I agree with some of your observations, particularly how as smokers we all had our "ONE" brand of smokes that we stuck to, then suddenly as we enter the vape world it all becomes about variety and the next best thing. I ask myself all the time how is it that I was completely satisfied with one brand/flavor of smokes, but no matter how many great vape flavors I create, I always get bored of them and want something else?

I never come up with a reasonable explanation for this ... I think that if cigarettes had as many flavor options and delivery set ups as vaping does, then perhaps our cigarette addiction/habit would have been a hobby as well as a habit too.

 

[talion]

I was wondering about that too. I haven't gotten bored with anything yet, but I'm still in the process of finding my "brand(s)" which will likely be my go to vape on a daily basis. It doesn't have to be a tobacco, but it needs to be something I will latch on to. I haven't found the one that has "it" yet. I wll probably still have things that I'm going to want to try from time to time, but I expect to have at most a small rotation of things that I will use regularly, and then occasionally try something for fun. Still, what I intend to have happen or what I think will happen, and what actually does happen... Who knows?

Let's just say that I'm open to the possibilities.

 

[Cool_Breeze]

Within 24 hours of taking up vaping, I surmized it is ~80% as satisfying as smoking. Gadgets and gizmos of course are fun. After 15 months and signficiantly upgrading equipment, etc, I continue to maintain the ~80% notion...else we might set our PVs down for a while. I think there may be a bit of, "Chasing the dragon" to it.

 

[mekks]

From my experience with vaping its been good for me, I don't wheez when I skate hard now. Taste back which is why I think I get bored of some flavors them tastebuds are kicking again. Smell back other then an over sensitive 2 weeks where I couldn't smell a smoker now it doesn't bother me so much to be around a lite one the urge is gone for it. It actually made me hate the taste of a cig. I don't stink, my house doesn't stink.

Will I continue to vape? Most likely as there were certain things about smoking that it mimics that I did enjoy, just didn't enjoy how a cig made me feel anymore. Really started to notice it the last few years, after smoking for 23 years.

The gadgets and gizmos is an added bonus as I love stuff like that, although I find myself having to put the brakes on with some things, but still very tempted...lol.

For the cool factors I think smoking lost that a while ago, but for some reason it does seem to stick with some people just not all. As for cool with vaping ... ummm.. well.... if it looked that cool I wouldn't have my friends and co-workers chuckling over it...lol. But that's ok I'm a dork and I own it

 

[Squish]

Yeah, my husband is always chuckling at me. He's a smoker who refuses to quit, laughs at me by day...then steals pulls off my PV at night cause he doesn't want to go outside. Typical.