As to that vid.. "Get outta my face". Best line. hahaha.
I still make my coils, guess that makes me a 'builder'. Though I don't see myself as a raymo or bd or jboi or whoever, what I think of as 'builders'. It's the same I think that happens with any market, commercialism. Not just from a sales standpoint but the more something goes mainstream the more it loses what made it unique to begin with. The sword cuts both ways, the more mainstream it becomes, the more money in the industry the more it's likely to have longevity. On the other hand it becomes watered down. Walmart.
Just in the few years I've been vaping people used to get really excited for stuff. Things were innovative or unique good or bad. The yt reviewers were like fellow vapers who appreciated the industry and more the community. It went from hey so I was goofing around and came up with a cool way to make a coil to hey I made a tool to cut coil leads. Hit my website, they're $19.95. You ask someone so what do you feel about this or that? And the response is 'hold up, did you buy a membership?'. Money first, enthusiasm secondary. It's lost that cozy feel of a group of enthusiasts and now it's mostly just corporate. I get people want to make money and that YT reviewers have been hit hard with demonitization and all. I also think they got too comfy in it being a main revenue source and no longer a hobby.
Same thing is happening with everyone, I've seen it with Jai Haze who's like a drunk kid with a pricing gun tagging every aspect of what he does. He'd sell his dirty shorts if he thought someone would buy them. Mooch started going that route, instead of merely contributing to a community he wanted to make it a full time job. Now if you want certain access to things you have to pay up. Diy or Die is doing the same thing, more and more vids are disappearing, temporary, recipes or in depth convos locked behind a money wall. Others of us have our own jobs and bills, we can't afford to prop up the entire industry when every tom, dick and harry wants an entry fee. I'm more community minded I guess. No I don't offer the expertise Wayne or Mooch do, but the advice I give is free. People don't have to pay me to send me a message and have me look at it. It takes time out of my day, I've got the same 24hrs everyone else does. I don't know the people I help whether it's helping them find hardware that sounds like it would suit them, trying to help them with problems on their mod or tank, passing them deals to save them a few bucks.
Another issue is the horrid pod craze. People got duped into repackaged ego pens. They bitch about dud coils and coils that the cotton burns up or gets funky in a hurry, then they move on to another product with the same shit mass produced factory coils. Premade coils are also becoming more available now that chinese companies are stepping up their game. Used to be if you wanted anything other than a basic round wire coil or clapton, you had to go with a coil builder if you didn't build it yourself. Now? Demonkiller, coilology, wotofo etc all have clapton, fused clapton, aliens, wire shots, premade on a spool, 100 coils for $10 and they're 'good enough' for a lot of people. Cheaper than handmade.
And ultimately most people are lazy as shit. It's not really knocking people, it's just what society has become. Cook my own food? Fuck that, I'll order out. Go pick up groceries or food myself? Fuck that, there's a service to go get it for me. I recently saw someone on fb trying to get into diy juice. But then they're bitching about it, too many components. They don't want to have to figure the nicotine amount, even with premade base. They then asked about not using vg or pg at all, just to make it easier. They're already complaining about mixing premade base and flavor shots ready to go, that's like the easiest way to do it. 2 parts, mix 'em. Then they're complaining about the cost. So what they want is, diy prices without the doing it part. Like if you don't want to fuck with all the ingredients and measuring - it's called buy a bottle of premixed commercial juice. We're right back where we started. Same with coils.
Oh factory coils are shit, there's no QC, they're too expensive, they don't last. Well you could make it yourself. Nah, that's too much work. Well there's premade ones you can buy that all you have to do is screw them to the post, trim them and stuff with wick. Nah, that's too much work too. I just want something I don't have to think about and can throw in and vape. You were using those, they were factory coils - and you bitched, remember? And because they're done for you they come with a price.
I'm pretty much anti modern internet. It used to be a cool innovative place with a more tight knit community and hobbyists who congregated together no matter the hobby. Whether it was boating, vaping, stamp collecting, computer building.. Now? It's like a constant stream of late night infomercials, advertisements within advertisements on top of advertisements. 101 people shoving shit in your face rip trippers style screaming 'BUY MY SHITTTT!!". And the quantity and quality of actual content has gone down. Any time you go to look for anything, 9x out of 10 it's just a wordy ad for something like a ninja foodi or a fucking kreg jig. Same shit with vaping sadly. You don't hear much from squidoode these days, every reviewer has their name on hardware trying to pimp their shit. It's like nascar. Well I'm vaping on a Tony B endorsed mod running Mooch branded batteries, hittin that Bogan atomizer with a pair of Jboi coils on randy mcfucknuts custom cotton, puffing on that IndoorSmokers ejuice.. like jesus fricken christ enough already.
So I tend to stick to myself, making my coils, learning to make my own juice, enjoying the old hobby of vaping - party of one. Forums where there used to be opinions and ideas exchange have given way to cloud check and selfies on instagram. At least I assume so, I dunno. I didn't buy the membership badge with the recurring monthly $19.95 + S/H fee.