Just looked through /u/Eizooz's poll results, especially the residency part, and my thoughts were confirmed: a large amount of DIY'ers here seem to be not from the US. According to the poll, 36% are not. The percentage is substantial, even if it is likely not very accurate in reality due to the sample size (667 responses).
The all about nicotine thread? Only US vendors.
Wiki pages? Only US vendors.
Most polls about residency? "What state are you from?"
et cetera
Now I am definitely not complaining. Don't get me wrong. Those three were just examples. Overall, this sub is very geographically neutral (contradicting my title). My examples, the wiki and everything, have taken a lot of hard work and it would take even more of that work to the information to apply to absolutely everyone, and that is not what I'm asking. Most are from the US, so there will be threads only useful to people from US, just like there are EU or Canada or Australia threads. I get everything I need out of this sub - and if I don't, I just have to find out myself, that's pretty much the basic mentality of DIY.
What I'm trying to poorly say is that (also, TL;DR:) I am trying to raise a bit of awareness: a LOT of us are not from the US. At times when I browse this sub (all day every day), I feel like we "others" are a bit forgotten about. Not too often, but often enough to notice. I just want you all to not forget that this happy thing called DIY is spread all around the world, and this sub is a huge central hub for everyone.
Thanks. Hugs and kisses, and good night from Finland.
I'll put together a post in the next couple of days asking for input from EU, Asia, and Australian DIY'ers on the best locations to source flavors and Nicotine and will then combine that information for a post for thee sidebar.
I agree it is currently missing for the most part, but that's mainly because /u/kirkt and I have developed/compiled the large majority of the sidebar content and we are both US based.
U S A ! U S A !
If you are NOT in America and want to buy nicotine, get in line at the Statue of Liberty, motherfuckers!
DIY is a consumer's market no different than buying eliquids or mods. Vendors will sell where there is a profitable market.
It's up to the consumers to show demand AND show a reasonable profit opportunity.
DIY consumers are quite possibly the lowest profit line for a vendor. They're cheap, they're demanding, and they don't do well at promoting their vendors to others.
I can't imagine how much of a loss a vendor would have to take to try to market to people overseas when the US customers bitch about paying $5 shipping fees to 3 vendors.
Naturally it is a consumer's market, almost everything DIY-tinkering-business is about dealing with low profit margins, but I wasn't talking about vendors specifically, and the thought of US vendors selling overseas didn't even cross my mind.
I tried to emphasize the geographical balance of the information provided here. In the subject of vendors, there are a lot of of them here across the pond for all needs, but they are more rarely discussed and/or documented here.
$5 for shipping for even one vendor sounds like godsend though.
> In the subject of vendors, there are a lot of of them here across the pond for all needs, but they are more rarely discussed and/or documented here.
So if there's a lack of information, take some time and put a reference post together with the vendors on that side. Start the discussion. Make the contribution. If nothing else, it'll come up when someone does a search for EU vendors, and it'll help them out.
There is such a post about EU vendors already at /r/ecr_eu, but that sub is not very DIY-centered overall and I have experience from only two or three vendors from that list. The conversation is there, but it would benefit from being here, too.
I might migrate that list here in some way in the near future, though, so searching here would provide a bit more at least. Thanks for the idea.
It's a pretty common thing on reddit unfortunately. e.g. Most non US posts on /r/ecr get downvoted to hell and never leaves /new because the majority aren't interested in it.
Having said that, this sub is pretty good to non US posts though - just do a quick search and you'll see most questions regarding sourcing ingredients from other parts of the world gets answered pretty quickly.
Mods - Any chance you can link to or port over the recommended DIY vendor list from /r/ecr_eu (I'd be happy to help add it to the wiki here if you open up edit access)
EDIT: More up-to date EU vendor list here
The search bar is my lover and I usually have no trouble finding answers, and that I'm thankful for. This is an awesome sub. It's sort of the slight daily skew of the discussion, if you will, what got me writing. The skew is very unlike ecr, thankfully. The fact that this is common on reddit overall is news to me though, this sub is pretty much the only thing I've ever been active on in addition to ecr. ^(And /r/food because food.)
This actually interests me, as I will soonish (8+ months from now) be moving to Spain. Really hope that I don't have to stockpile a bunch of DIY stuff to take with me. Limited moving weight and all that.
The reason it's US-centric is because 64% is in one country, the US. The other 36% will have extremely different regulations, shipping methods, and shipping customs. Included in that 36% is a large amount of Canadians, most of which can purchase items from US vendors. It's much easier to write guides for the country with the largest amount of DIYers than it is to write one for Slovenia, Croatia, Ireland, Greece, Italy, UK, Germany, France, Japan, The Netherlands, Latvia, New Zealand, Russia, Switzerland, Denmark, Australia, South Africa, Pakistan, Scotland, Zimbabwe, UAE, Portugal, Czech Republic, Spain, Norway, Malaysia, Austria, Argentina, Poland, Belgium, and Finland each.
edit: also because America is the fuckin' besss and we have the A-10 Warthogs to prove it.
I've always thought US states to be so varying regulatory-wise that I could compare it to EU and it's countries because the borders are pretty much open for people and trade.
But yes, as I said I understand why the sub is skewed. As you said, it's easier that way. I was not asking for guides and information per se. I was commenting on the fact that sometimes, just sometimes, the conversations seem to reveal a subtly ingrained mentality that leaves the rest of the world out (not just the EU) sort of accidentally.
Then again, I'm somewhat new here, so what do I know.