As you can see from the join date under my name, I've been here before. But the ECF that I remember had an all-black motif, and had about... 30 active members.
My, how things have changed. Even in its primitive state, this forum was a welcome resource of useful information and candid personal reviews on what was then a young vaping culture - but now I find it is almost TOO BIG to even take in! It really is a testament to just how far people are willing to go in pursuit of an alternative to analogs.
Anyways - at the time I first got into vaping in March 08, I think I had dropped about $140 on a single NJoy, as it seemed to be the best deal available then, and certainly the popular choice among members of this forum. I have to laugh now - looking back on it - there were so few choices on the market!
Long story short - I've always smoked about 1 carton a week of analogs, and within 24hrs of getting my first NJoy PV, I was smoking just 2 analogs a day!... which I thought was a ....ing miracle - and every smoker who saw me vaping wanted to know how to get in on it. Unfortunately, the miracle turned out to be a mirage. My PV failed within a couple of weeks, was replaced, failed again after a few weeks - repeat, repeat. It became clear to me that the technology of E-Cigs was still in its infancy, and had a long way to go before it became something I could trust as a realistic replacement for analogs. I gave up, and returned to my analogs.
Flash-forward two years (and 20,800 analogs!) later... Michigan just became the 38th state to pass a smoking ban, and I figured I would revisit the world of E-Cigs and see if the technology had progressed at all since my last experience. The first thing I noticed was that the price of the mass-produced E-Cig hardware has dropped significantly since my first $140 NJoy purchase. I was able to purchase TWO Joye 510 setups for less than 1/3 the price I had previously paid for a single NJoy two years ago. That was a good sign - but what really shocked me was this:
<EDIT>
I tried to post a link here to "The Wonderful World of Vaping: An Illustrated Guide to E-cigs" in this New Member Forum - but ECF wouldn't let me post a URL because my post-count is under 15. That seems odd, considering the link is to their own website, but OK - look for this thread pegged at the top of this forum room
</EDIT>
Wow! First of all, let me thank DonDaBoomVape for what has to be the most extensive and detailed e-cigarette crash-course tutorial on the entire internet. And secondly - let me express how completely OVERWHELMED that I am with the progression of vaping culture over the past two years.
To be completely honest - I am LOST in this website. I know the moderators and contributors have worked really hard to archive all of the information that's here - but as a "new" user - I can tell you it is just really overwhelming. I can't even get the search function to return anything - but that may be an isolated problem of my own.
But that brings me to the crux of my post. What's blown me away after re-visiting this site is not how popular vaping has become, or how much cheaper the hardware is - but rather, how little the technology has progressed from a mass-market standpoint. It seems to me like 90% of this website is devoted to people still trying to get their e-cig to work properly. I mean - maybe I am way off here - but I still just see terrible products and thousands of people who are desperately trying to make them work! What's going on here?
All I know is that I've had my new Joye 510 for about 4 weeks now, and I'm already disappointed. I got the e-liquid this time around, and have been topping off the cartridges, trying my best to follow all of the new techniques that are mentioned on this website... but it's still a very inconsistent and ultimately unsatisfying experience. One toke I have a thick, smooth, satisfying vape - and two draws later, I'm breathing nasty throat-clinching fire. I even tried the tea bags, and aquarium filters (not even sure why anyone thinks vaping nicotine-soaked aquarium filters is healthier than analogs), but still... THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CONSISTENT VAPE.
As best I can tell - most of this website is devoted to MacGuyver types who are trying everything under the sun to get their vapes consistent, short of resurrecting Mr. Wizard from the dead. None of it is proven safe or consistent - so I might as well just roll dangerous-style with my analogs, which are about 2000x more convenient than constantly ....ing with my PV throughout the day.
I'm sorry - I don't mean to insult or discourage the amount of creativity and ingenuity that is present on this site. I really respect what you guys are doing to make these things work - but part of me is like, just not willing to spend 2 hours a day fucing around with my PV, when I can just throw a pack of analogs in my pocket in the morning and be done with it. And when I think about all the modifications that are going here - it just frustrates me even more. I mean - you would never see a website with 4000 users banding together to modify a vacuum cleaner that didn't work, would you? There's something just ridiculous about it all...
When I finally gave up my first e-cig two years ago - my girlfriend was ....... Not because I was going back to analogs, but because I had turned close to a hundred people on to vaping - and she realized that I could make quite a bit of money if I pushed the devices as a sales representative. But what I knew then - and what I still know now - is that this device will NEVER succeed until major US Industry embraces it as a legitimate alternative to smoking. I'm talking about a multi-billion dollar investment - with a team of MIT graduates inventing the necessary technology out of thin air. That's what it will take to topple big-tobacco's hold on this country. Importing the same technology from the Far East, over and over again - re-packaging it, re-branding it, re-selling it - IT DOESN'T WORK PROPERLY!!! China is very good at mass-producing cheap technology - but e-cigarettes need a breakthrough, MIT style. And the MacGuyver stuff here - it's admirable - but it's not going to cut it for me. At this point, I won't drop another $150 to buy a Frankenstein PV some guy made in his basement And to be fair - I'll probably never buy another e-cig in my life unless I'm 100% certain that I won't have to constantly be ....ing with my device every day to make it work consistently. I smoke analogs to relieve stress, ya know? Vaping, at this point, seems counter-intuitive.
My, how things have changed. Even in its primitive state, this forum was a welcome resource of useful information and candid personal reviews on what was then a young vaping culture - but now I find it is almost TOO BIG to even take in! It really is a testament to just how far people are willing to go in pursuit of an alternative to analogs.
Anyways - at the time I first got into vaping in March 08, I think I had dropped about $140 on a single NJoy, as it seemed to be the best deal available then, and certainly the popular choice among members of this forum. I have to laugh now - looking back on it - there were so few choices on the market!
Long story short - I've always smoked about 1 carton a week of analogs, and within 24hrs of getting my first NJoy PV, I was smoking just 2 analogs a day!... which I thought was a ....ing miracle - and every smoker who saw me vaping wanted to know how to get in on it. Unfortunately, the miracle turned out to be a mirage. My PV failed within a couple of weeks, was replaced, failed again after a few weeks - repeat, repeat. It became clear to me that the technology of E-Cigs was still in its infancy, and had a long way to go before it became something I could trust as a realistic replacement for analogs. I gave up, and returned to my analogs.
Flash-forward two years (and 20,800 analogs!) later... Michigan just became the 38th state to pass a smoking ban, and I figured I would revisit the world of E-Cigs and see if the technology had progressed at all since my last experience. The first thing I noticed was that the price of the mass-produced E-Cig hardware has dropped significantly since my first $140 NJoy purchase. I was able to purchase TWO Joye 510 setups for less than 1/3 the price I had previously paid for a single NJoy two years ago. That was a good sign - but what really shocked me was this:
<EDIT>
I tried to post a link here to "The Wonderful World of Vaping: An Illustrated Guide to E-cigs" in this New Member Forum - but ECF wouldn't let me post a URL because my post-count is under 15. That seems odd, considering the link is to their own website, but OK - look for this thread pegged at the top of this forum room
</EDIT>
Wow! First of all, let me thank DonDaBoomVape for what has to be the most extensive and detailed e-cigarette crash-course tutorial on the entire internet. And secondly - let me express how completely OVERWHELMED that I am with the progression of vaping culture over the past two years.
To be completely honest - I am LOST in this website. I know the moderators and contributors have worked really hard to archive all of the information that's here - but as a "new" user - I can tell you it is just really overwhelming. I can't even get the search function to return anything - but that may be an isolated problem of my own.
But that brings me to the crux of my post. What's blown me away after re-visiting this site is not how popular vaping has become, or how much cheaper the hardware is - but rather, how little the technology has progressed from a mass-market standpoint. It seems to me like 90% of this website is devoted to people still trying to get their e-cig to work properly. I mean - maybe I am way off here - but I still just see terrible products and thousands of people who are desperately trying to make them work! What's going on here?
All I know is that I've had my new Joye 510 for about 4 weeks now, and I'm already disappointed. I got the e-liquid this time around, and have been topping off the cartridges, trying my best to follow all of the new techniques that are mentioned on this website... but it's still a very inconsistent and ultimately unsatisfying experience. One toke I have a thick, smooth, satisfying vape - and two draws later, I'm breathing nasty throat-clinching fire. I even tried the tea bags, and aquarium filters (not even sure why anyone thinks vaping nicotine-soaked aquarium filters is healthier than analogs), but still... THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CONSISTENT VAPE.
As best I can tell - most of this website is devoted to MacGuyver types who are trying everything under the sun to get their vapes consistent, short of resurrecting Mr. Wizard from the dead. None of it is proven safe or consistent - so I might as well just roll dangerous-style with my analogs, which are about 2000x more convenient than constantly ....ing with my PV throughout the day.
I'm sorry - I don't mean to insult or discourage the amount of creativity and ingenuity that is present on this site. I really respect what you guys are doing to make these things work - but part of me is like, just not willing to spend 2 hours a day fucing around with my PV, when I can just throw a pack of analogs in my pocket in the morning and be done with it. And when I think about all the modifications that are going here - it just frustrates me even more. I mean - you would never see a website with 4000 users banding together to modify a vacuum cleaner that didn't work, would you? There's something just ridiculous about it all...
When I finally gave up my first e-cig two years ago - my girlfriend was ....... Not because I was going back to analogs, but because I had turned close to a hundred people on to vaping - and she realized that I could make quite a bit of money if I pushed the devices as a sales representative. But what I knew then - and what I still know now - is that this device will NEVER succeed until major US Industry embraces it as a legitimate alternative to smoking. I'm talking about a multi-billion dollar investment - with a team of MIT graduates inventing the necessary technology out of thin air. That's what it will take to topple big-tobacco's hold on this country. Importing the same technology from the Far East, over and over again - re-packaging it, re-branding it, re-selling it - IT DOESN'T WORK PROPERLY!!! China is very good at mass-producing cheap technology - but e-cigarettes need a breakthrough, MIT style. And the MacGuyver stuff here - it's admirable - but it's not going to cut it for me. At this point, I won't drop another $150 to buy a Frankenstein PV some guy made in his basement And to be fair - I'll probably never buy another e-cig in my life unless I'm 100% certain that I won't have to constantly be ....ing with my device every day to make it work consistently. I smoke analogs to relieve stress, ya know? Vaping, at this point, seems counter-intuitive.
). Those of us that do experiment to make them better are actually making improvements and making a better e-cig. Ones that are safer, easier to care for and more reliable. It will take time however for this to happen. For now this is what we have and they work. They might not be perfect but we cannot dismiss that they have helped so many people, like me, to kick the habit of smoking analogs. That in itself is worth trying to make them better and better so that one day nobody smokes coffin nails any longer. 
