The Community Instead of Ads

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Hi everyone :waving_hand:

Today I’ve brought a topic that comes up from time to time. I’ll be completely honest with you, as always…

Over the past few years, foreign vape shops and websites have been contacting us one after another. They would gladly pay significant, fixed monthly sums to place their ads or links, for example, in the sidebar. This money would immediately solve all of the site’s financial problems.

Yet, I turn them down one after another. Why?
Because domestic regulation is very strict. If we post a link or a banner on Vaperina, where we advertise, promote a webshop, the authorities can block the Vaperina domain with a single stroke of a pen, or impose a fine on us that we would never be able to pay. I cannot risk that over 6 years of hard work and our Community’s home vanish in an instant. We choose security over easy money.

But let’s look at the other side, the reality, which is damn disappointing.

While, without exaggeration, we do the most for the domestic vaper community – we not only maintain this platform, but also the Petition and the Vaperina Fact fact-checking page against misinformation – the cash register, as usual, is empty.

Let’s take a look around the domestic vape sphere. Honestly, there’s not much to look at anymore, unfortunately, but there is, for example, Tamás Fehér, a “YouTuber”, who receives magnitudes more monthly support from his viewers – and I’ll just mention in passing (within a lottery draw for years, where incomprehensible sums used to go to support) – and who does essentially nothing for the community’s advocacy, infrastructure, or simply in its interest.

What’s our situation? For 6 years, the few thousand forints monthly coming from donations has remained practically unchanged. This isn’t even enough for the platform’s basic server bills, let alone for the Petition, developments, or the Fact page, AI, etc. Month after month, we make calculations from our own family budget, and the math almost never adds up. This, in this form, is unsustainable and unfair.

Vaperina is not a profit-oriented machine, but our common home. But maintaining a home isn’t free. We want this platform to remain independent and survive. We won’t sell your security for advertisements, but we can no longer afford to maintain it out of our own pockets…

Of course, there are a few people who steadfastly support Vaperina monthly, whether for a few months now or for years. We can’t thank them enough for what they put into this and for truly supporting real value! Vaperina still exists because of them! Thank you to them! :vaperina: :hugs:

I will be a supporter! :heart:

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Hi everyone! :waving_hand:

Thank you Donát! :heart: :hugs:

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Thank you!!

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Thank you! I try to support Vaperina regularly, admittedly with smaller amounts, but I think if everyone, or even just 1/10 of the members, supported with this much, the situation would be easier! There are 29355 users, though unfortunately only a fraction of them are present regularly :frowning: and an even smaller portion supports you. :frowning:

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This might just be my opinion, but by making negative comments about another person who creates vape content, you won’t be more likeable in the eyes of those who could support the page.

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[quote=“János Tóth, post:8, topic:78813, username:Janessza”]you are making negative remarks about another person who makes vape content

[/quote]

I never intended to make negative remarks; what I wrote is the plain truth.

If I had made negative remarks about him, it would have sounded something like this: He had an older YouTube channel, built it up to a few thousand subscribers, then switched to vaping. He approached webshops, who sent him stuff to test. Then he did the tests, which were the most superficial imaginable, with the word “beautiful” appearing in almost every video…

Once the video was made, he would raffle off the unopened products (because he always got more from the shops) in his monthly giveaways. Entry was a minimum of 1000 forints, then 1500, and at one point there were nearly 300 names on the paper. After the draw, he would put the used test units, or whatever he had left, up for sale on buy-and-sell sites (including ours, but we quickly put a stop to that). And this is how it went every month. So, he pocketed serious money with every move. YouTube is a free platform, it even pays for views… He was constantly trying to steer people to the shops where he had a profit at the time.

Now that vaping has become impossible, he has switched to testing tech products, and only rarely has vaping gear. But even so, there are about 50 names on that paper monthly, and he now has a tech paper as well, with many names on it – he raffles off the tested tech stuff there in the same way, and whatever he has left, he puts up for sale. And one could go on…

But anyway, this is also just the pure truth… There would be nothing wrong with this other than it’s completely illegal, but let’s not pretend this was, or is, all done for the sake of the community.

My goal is not to be more likeable, nor has it ever been. I just want to highlight what represents real value.

Is the value that there is a platform that has been a stable, fixed point and base for Hungarian vapers for years, or is it the YouTuber who intentionally keeps people in the dark, and as soon as there’s no profit to be made from the community, he immediately switches from vaping to another topic because he was only interested in the business? I don’t think it matters.

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The profit-oriented ideology of the aforementioned YouTuber also contributed significantly to the fact that today, almost no new users want to delve deep into things, analyze connections, or seek solutions to problems; they simply discard the previous one and buy another if they have the money. Not to mention, they heavily promoted disposable devices, and now we’re bewildered why people don’t understand that it’s illegal! This is because there was a YouTuber who constantly repeated, ‘buy it, it’s good…’ Less was said about how much money they were paid to utter those words. Let’s not even mention professionalism, because it was never present! They led half of the Hungarian vape community into a dead end!

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I think everyone has an opinion about F.T. What’s interesting is that the more someone knows about vaping, the more negative their opinion is. So, if anyone worships them, looks up to them, or considers their opinion authoritative in any way, they should reflect on how little they actually know about vaping.

Regarding support and maintaining the site, it’s incredible to me that the site maintainers, besides all the added work required for operation, have to spend their own money to entertain and provide a completely unique information pool for users or just those interested. It feels a bit like we don’t appreciate their work, we just use it. Many people can get away with it sometimes with a little heart, a like, or a differently phrased virtual pat on the back. Those who know me know that it’s completely against my nature to intentionally hurt anyone. However, many people seem to have expectations. Unfortunately, in today’s world, everything costs money, and it would be much easier if everyone just contributed a minimum amount continuously to the site’s maintenance. No one is asking for huge sacrifices from anyone, except for the users who don’t contribute but are here daily or visit often, gathering information, in contrast to the site maintainers. I think for many people, it’s natural that this site operates. They don’t even think about how much work and cost is involved for someone to provide content to read and a place to spend time. Lots of unnoticeable ‘small change’ would largely solve the problem. I am sure that apathy, procrastination, and the ‘not my problem’ attitude are the biggest issues. And the typical ‘this is owed to me, I use it because it’s here’ mindset. But if everyone always approaches it this way, then one day there will be nowhere to read or get information. I admit I bow to the perseverance of the maintainers, and I feel unreasonably ashamed on behalf of most users. We’ve been dragging the same problem for years. I dare to say it openly that the attitude is almost shameful.

My intention was not to offend anyone, only to make them think. You can argue with me, but it’s pointless because I stand by my opinion in all circumstances. Of course, the true saying still holds: If the shoe fits, wear it.

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This is a completely true and perfect writing!! Don’t you be ashamed on behalf of others; those who read this will recognize themselves anyway, let them be ashamed!! I am ashamed because I didn’t do it at first!! Now that I’m still here, it can’t happen that I don’t support it with a few thousand forints every month! I realized what a great value Vaperina is!!! I only owe gratitude to Donát and Kinga!! Thank you for your work!!!

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In my opinion, for someone to support someone or something, one needs to sympathize with the owner, but this is just my opinion. If raffling products is a concern, then according to this, you consider Mike Vapes, Vaping Bogan, or Tgcc Tyler to be objectionable as well, who also hold raffles among their Patreon subscribers. In my opinion, many people started vaping after watching his videos, including myself. Although I’ve since moved on from the cheaper setups he featured to high-end boro, I still often watch some of his videos with nostalgia.

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I think there are many who truly don’t want to dig deep, don’t want to dive into the vape world and know everything. Many just don’t want to smoke cigarettes and smell like them. The younger generation won’t be interested in a long, technical discussion with a black background; instead, they want a short pod presentation on what nicotine to buy for it, and that’s it. This current generation wants immediate results with the least amount of effort possible. And yes, speaking of disposables, there would be no problem with them at all, just look at many surrounding countries. It could be a great smoking cessation product if it filled the pockets of the right people, but it doesn’t, so it’s persecuted at home.

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Just because I don’t bash Tomi or dismiss his builds, or look down on him, or have a bad opinion of him, doesn’t mean my knowledge is worth any less than others’. I am a moderator on a Discord server where I extensively help others with advice, websites, product recommendations, or building tips on Boro-related topics. I don’t look down on Tomi; yet, I consider my knowledge, product familiarity, and collection outstanding in the Boro field. My collection includes valuable, rare, unique items, and even an AIO of which there are currently only four in the world, personally sent to me by the founder/owner of Kaser.

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I’d love to see your collection. Many people here would be interested.

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I’d be happy to show you. Would you like it privately or here under the post?

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I’m glad! Here:Mutasd meg, mid van 5.0 - #7262 Tucsok által

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I think there are much more important and bigger things than this, I’m thinking of the common goal, the community, but of course, basic sympathy is also important.

Let there be no misunderstanding, I do not condemn anyone, everyone decides for themselves how much they want to risk. I merely stated the dry legal facts: that model is illegal gambling in Hungary.

I don’t think more than necessary about the foreign YouTubers you mentioned either, but this is a classic apple-to-pear situation, for two reasons.

Firstly, we are in Hungary, where the laws are much stricter on this topic, and secondly, Patreon and a draw-based raffle are legally two completely different categories:

  • What counts as gambling? According to the law, gambling is when a participant buys a chance for a prize with money (by paying a stake), where the outcome depends on chance. This is exactly what happened with Tamás: viewers bought per-piece lottery tickets (1000-1500 Ft) to raffle a specific product. This is an unlicensed raffle.
  • Why is Patreon different? Patreon is an official subscription and support platform. There, users don’t buy raffle tickets, but pay a membership fee for exclusive content, videos, or a closed community. If the content creator raffles a gift among fixed supporters, it legally qualifies as a gift raffle or promotion, as members paid for the content, not the raffle.

In the past, the property lottery, which has since been completely banned, operated on exactly the same principle: you bought a raffle ticket worth a few thousand forints for a house, and the organizer ended up raking in multiples of the house’s real value from the tickets.

Tamás also runs exactly this mechanism: by involving the community, it can happen that a freely received pod system or tech gadget, normally worth about 10,000 Ft, is ultimately sold for hundreds of thousands of forints through lottery tickets. Which, let’s face it, is anything but helping the community selflessly.

That’s surely true, many started vaping because of them. It reminds me that back in the day, when Tamás was more active, we specifically discussed on Vaperina those people who, after his videos, had more questions than answers. Because

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It’s not for them, but for the remaining old Ecigitesztek fans.

You’re right about that, but that doesn’t mean you have to reinforce that it’s the right way to be! No one would lose their wedding ring if they at least understood the basic functions and effects, and then maybe Vaperina would come back to life again, because there would be a point to the discussions! Not just that people would be curious about where to order from, which Tamás bástya has instilled in them by constantly saying that the simplest products are the best, because you hardly have to do anything with them, you just vape them. Meanwhile, even a simpler pod has specifications, properties, which are good to get to know, to be aware of, because if a colleague or friend asks about it, you can’t say anything because the user themselves isn’t aware of these things.

It’s also worth knowing about disposables that the countries that DO NOT ship them here, but can legally sell them within their own country, typically sell products that have already been tested in the EU. Products are shipped here by almost only those shady webshops that typically sell fake goods as well, so you can never know if you’re getting an original or not. Due to the saturation of the market and the popularity of the products, the black market has taken off so much that the shady webshops mentioned above do not always have a business behind them, and such people cannot build up a stock of goods from the legal market that serves the customer base, which is constantly growing, precisely because of the proliferation of disposables! This is why the black market remains, which is an absolute lottery!

Sometimes it’s worth digging deeper…

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In my opinion, most of the supporters didn’t pay to win a pod, but because they liked what they saw, found it informative, or sympathized with Tomi. First, after the big shutdown, it wasn’t the ‘let’s go to Párkány’ thing that arrived, but the Aromapalota mixing videos. If you have such a complete set of information, then you should somehow push it on platforms where you can reach a larger audience, in my opinion. Is the documentation you put together available to view somewhere?

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I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with someone just using atomizers or just pod vaping and not wanting to dive deeper. I think if it’s enough for people that I don’t smell like cigarettes, then that segment should be left in their own little environment. A young person using pods who is satisfied that they don’t smoke and their girlfriend isn’t disgusted by the smell of cigarettes won’t initiate a discussion here on Vaperina. This is a full-fledged hobby for me, so I’m happy to discuss with you now, even if our opinions don’t align on many things. When I mentioned disposables, I wasn’t thinking of vapsolo or similar moth repellent stuff, but rather of legally purchasable products. The black market would be greatly limited if one could legally purchase tested products from a reliable source here as well.

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