Weed Vaping Review site

[Terpene Station]

Hello FC community,

This is my first time posting but I have read many postings through the years on this site and thought it would be a great place to ask this question. I have been vaping weed for the past 3.5 years with my own devices. Before that, I have tried the S+B Plenty, Hybrid, and the Davinci IQ. I own the Arizer EQ and XQ2, Gpen (this was a mistake ) and very recently the mini nail kit with a quartz banger. I went from sceptic to enthusiast in what took 5+ years but along the way I have really enjoyed the space and find myself constantly reading up on new weed/concentrate devices.

Ok, so I would like some feedback on an idea. I would like to put together a website that discusses as many weed vapes for flower and concentrate as possible. I plan to gather information through research, such as contacting each company and reading up as much as I can on each individual device and offering a website with a very highly detailed review and specifications. I am camera shy and I only own and have tried the vapes I mentioned above. I can put in a ton of time and research so that this website contains a one stop shop for reviews and acknowledges the already existing reviews out there in the review. For example, rotten tomatoes will mention tidbits from various movie critics.

This is just as idea at the moment but any feedback will be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[Grass Yes]

For me, all the people whose opinions I trust about vapes are on this site. Nearly all of the vape reviewers in YouTube and other sites are not really useful to me. And they tend to only review the vapes they get for free, or that provide them with affiliate codes. Vapes in that category tend to not be my favorites.

So if you just want to create another review site for your own enjoyment feel free! If you are looking to monetize it, I'm sure that's also possible if you bring something to the table that people like. Although as you probably know, our community has seen the rise and fall of many critics and reviewers.

 

[Terpene Station]

I totally agree with what you said. I am thinking something more like a review-aggregation website similar to what rotten tomatoes is for movies but for weed/concentrates vape reviews. Would a weed review-aggregator website be something the community would want?

 

[Shit Snacks]

I totally agree with what you said. I am thinking something more like a review-aggregation website similar to what rotten tomatoes is for movies but for weed/concentrates vape reviews. Would a weed review-aggregator website be something the community would want?

Honestly don't think it would be possible

 

[oddjobold]

If your talking about reviews of vapes from actual owners, this could work. You might get a more honest opinion than from some of the you tube reviewers. Make revenue from some adds, but keep the reviews super unbiased. You would also need a way to try and stop fake reviews...

 

[darbarikanada]

Would a weed review-aggregator website be something the community would want?

only if you knew the reviewers were trustworthy - not sure how you'd do it. this site has built-in checks against bad (or just unvetted) actors. if someone posts a glowing review here, you can see if they've ever posted before. if not, it's highly likely to be a shill. plus you can see what other vapes the reviewer owns, so you get a sense of what they're comparing the reviewed vape to.

another issue is that new vapes are frequently kind of 'beta' - the manufacturer may or may not fix any initial problems. having an ongoing thread about a new product by 'early adopters' provides an invaluable service to those of us who don't want to be guinea pigs. sometimes it takes a while to figure out what's just 'learning curve' vs. serious design flaws; for example: watching how the initial hype about the Ghost MV1 ultimately fizzled was a perfect example of how this site is a kind of 'wiki' - and how long that process can take (many months if I recall correctly). even S&B seems to have faltered on their initial release of the venty; to their credit, they did the right thing, but the thread here alerted us to the issue.

 

[Terpene Station]

I wanted to say thanks to everyone for the quick responses and information.

 

[cannasoor]

Hey @Terpene Station , I think your idea is a good one, although I also see the problems that others have mentioned.

But I have wondered if we couldn't have something like a fact-based online database/website that just provides objective information about vapes: models, variations, power sources, size and weight, compatibility (e.g. 10/14/18mm), etc. Just the stuff that people would sort of "have to" agree on, as its objective and factual. If it was updated often (<= and this is key), this would be a hugely useful resource. Of course, FC has similar stuff in the resources section, but nothing comprehensive and up-to-date, I think. (Hmm, looks like a lot of the Resources date back ten years or so.)

Even something "objective" like pricing is hard to capture accurately, as it changes over the years, sales happen, etc.

Once you had a resource like that, it might be possible to sneak in a few subjective things. Maybe just broad user ratings? Or maybe Wikipedia-style consensus-building with "meta" and "talk" pages (but imagine what that would be like after a while—it would quickly become "political").

Even without politics, it can be very hard to capture people's (subjective) responses: years ago I raved to a dispensary owner about my first vape, how much better the flavor was than smoking … but now it's near the bottom of my list in that regard. So much of our opinions are colored by our own experience, and not too many people have more than a dozen or so vapes. (Well, maybe here on FC there are quite a few in that range, but the website/database clientele could likely be broader: should it be invitation only? Moderated?)

(Just another example of the kinds of issues that could crop up: consider those cheap little vapes that people see in dispensaries, buy, and then complain about how bad the flavor is, or just the general experience, turning some people off to vaping early. Should those vapes be included in the list? It would tend to promote them, to have them listed objectively along with all the other, better ones. Should we warn people against them, as a "class" of vapes? That would be difficult and contentious. If they aren't included, who decides which ones are and aren't?)

Whether just an objective database or a review site, I imagine it would take a lot of time and effort to put together. But in the latter case, the work and the headaches would likely lead to burnout pretty quickly. And if you crowd-source it, you come back to all the politics and related issues (heaven forbid, AI bots eventually).

What do others think? Could we even agree on the kinds of objective data that we could collect and provide?

To be fair, I will take a first shot—these are cribbed from a list I was making up at one point:

• manufacturer: name, address, website, email, phone?, country
• setting: desktop, portable, flexible
• power: wall plug, battery, butane, … solar? (the Sun Token)
• usage: session, on-demand, flexible; also solo/group
• heat style: convection, conduction, hybrid, radiant?
• heater type: metal, glass, ceramic, halogen
• regulation: digital versus analog (or regulated versus unregulated)
• material(s): plastic, wood, metal, glass, ceramic, old matchsticks and chewing gum ()

But then there are lots of other things: draw (open/closed), form factors (handling, pocket-ability), discretion (look, smell), holding temp, handling issues (burn dangers), …, … .

In the same file where I was developing this list of criteria, I ended up pasting in some other people's ideas from a Reddit/r/vaporents discussion: it all runs to about a page just listing them out (with some subjectivities starting to creep in). That brings up a kind of paradox that arises: provide too little information and someone will find it wanting (for their purpose); provide too much information, and it can be overwhelming. To make it flexible, one would need "views" of the data that included, suppressed, highlighted, sorted by, etc., various criteria. So we would probably need technical expertise in designing the database and the interface to it (or at least in choosing from and configuring existing tools).

If people seem interested, I will try to consolidate the other ideas I have in that file, clean them up a bit, and post them (with credit to the Reddit posters, which I have to track down as well.)

(Sorry if I am hi-jacking your thread, away from user reviews and toward "database issues". If you feel it's so, I'll move to my own thread, or just drop it.)

 

[bestvaping]

I think the idea is really great, I had started a similar SPA app project where I classified vapes by type, which made it very easy to find the information you were looking for:



Here there were two accordion menus, one listing manufacturers (where you can find all the information about the company/craftsman), and the second listing selected product types (where you'll find all the information you need about the product in question, e.g. its size, weight, herb chamber size and much more), this allowed greater visibility and avoided duplication.

I think the ideal solution would be to offer several languages.

An insert at the top of the page displayed various information about the type of product selected (for example, here with bricks, a warning about the type of lighter to use and other useful information).

Manufacturers and Products would have had a section where users could have given their opinion (or a rating) because I don't think only your opinion (or anyone else's, I'm not criticizing anyone here) matters, because you might not like a particular vaporizer, while another user might love it wholeheartedly. That's why user feedback is so important and why this forum is so great (we need diversity).

All information is provided in tables for easy sorting (you can sort by brand, size, etc).

The aim was to find the "ideal" vape for you, but also to compare different vapes to find accessories that might match between several manufacturers such as mouthpieces (and perhaps also help accessory manufacturers find the information they need to offer us ever more beautiful things).

However the project didn't see the light of day because I'm so busy now (it takes an enormous amount of time to compile the information (and verify it with other operators if possible)) .. but that's not the only reason, in fact I had contacted several manufacturers to start listing information (I started here with bricks because I love bricks) however for the most part I never received answers to my questions ..

The project is called Vaporizon and I think it's great (the vapoteur's bible) but there are a lot of technical and human problems (I would have needed a moderator to check and validate the reviews, for example, because it can quickly become insurmountable). Unfortunately, the manufacturers didn't play along and for most of them I've been waiting for answers for several months now. Once again, compiling and verifying information given by a user or by the manufacturer directly takes an enormous amount of time, and of course it's very difficult to get all these vaporizers (especially for models or companies that have closed), so you need help for such a project.

However, I wish you every success, because a project like this would be fantastic

 

[Terpene Station]

@cannasoor Thanks for your insight! Yes!! I assumed reviews were a must but really I would love to put together a comprehensive website with objective insights and it doesn't need reviews actually. An extensive and dynamic database would be the first place to start. I'm thinking legit scrapers can cut down some of the work etc. I am willing to put in a lot of patience and effort into this project. I can post my progress every so often here and the feedback is most welcome. You are in no way high jacking anything, quite the opposite. I look forward to hearing more. I think I can take this idea a bit farther but it can take some time and I'm willing to get started on this by April.

@bestvaping From April onward I plan to compile as much information for as many existing manufacturers directly and online etc. I have my own ideas for categories and of course many may overlap with those mentioned in previous replies. I want to try and do this. I know it seems monumental. I can post updates here, say by the end of April and then end of each month for example. For me, I want to build relationships here and in the vape space over time. This all takes years and I am willing and able. Step one: I plan to compile a spreadsheet with measurable and objective information from 100 existing companies and can share my results. As mentioned, a dynamic and somewhat complete site can take years but so does building relationships and getting to know people in this space which I really want to be part of. So, the way I see it, it will take time but it will be worth the effort.

 

[cannasoor]

OK, I am still working on that list of categories and aspects (or whatever) that I promised; having some trouble finding the right approach, but made progress after trying a user-oriented perspective (duh!).

One of the redditor comments I mentioned above was the inspiration for that: they were commenting on a post about what makes a good vape, describing a spreadsheet they put together. Written very much from a "what do I want in a vape" approach, rather than "what can I objectively quantify". (I mean, really: do any of us know how much their vapes weigh in grams? It's objective, but not calibrated correctly for the user. Need something more like "notably heavy in the hand" versus not even mentioning it, as it's normal enough and not an issue.)

Anyway, see here:

reddit comment from /u/nkwiw on vape aspects

Of course, user perspective is tricky and moves into the subjective weeds a bit, as different users have different perspectives. It's also a more abstract, higher level than the objective/quant stuff.

[And there are issues of data dependencies (aspects relevant only to certain types of vapes, for example, like battery issues—not for a Vapman). It's been 40 years since I thought about third normal form in databases and related issues, so I get distracted (vaping does not help — or does it?).]

@bestvaping : very cool looking app! Regarding the immensity of the task: the best I can offer here is the idea of crowd-sourcing, à la Wikipedia, for example. You gather data from user contributions, look for consistency, and allow some mechanism/process for dispute/correction/whatever. You could have trusted moderators who would share some of the organizing effort, and they would naturally come and go as their enthusiasm rose and waned, personal circumstances changed, etc. This would spread out the effort … but it would still be a lot of work, now including just to set the whole process up.

As several people pointed out above, there are always going to be issues of authenticity, shilling, astro-turf-y stuff, whatever, in addition to just plain subjective disputes amongst genuine parties who beg to differ.

But if we could just have, for example, an up-to-date-ish list of (almost) all vaporizers, with contact info/links, prices, a few other things … that would be, as @Terpene Station says above, "monumental". If it could reflect the genuine opinions of the right crowd in some summary way, without manipulation or bitterness in disputes … that would be amazing.

[For example, imagine some sort of fancy Data Science visualization display of distributions of opinions on two or three vapes under consideration, as regards, say, flavor and a couple other things. But, with some way to limit the data to the opinions of users who owned all of the vapes in question. Or perhaps limited to some crowd-determined subset of trusted sources. If everyone gets a say (potentially represented in the distribution), what's to dispute?]

OK, I'm back to categories and aspects … and, uh, gettin' properly into me stems !

 

[Terpene Station]

I think the idea is really great, I had started a similar SPA app project where I classified vapes by type, which made it very easy to find the information you were looking for:



Here there were two accordion menus, one listing manufacturers (where you can find all the information about the company/craftsman), and the second listing selected product types (where you'll find all the information you need about the product in question, e.g. its size, weight, herb chamber size and much more), this allowed greater visibility and avoided duplication.

I think the ideal solution would be to offer several languages.

An insert at the top of the page displayed various information about the type of product selected (for example, here with bricks, a warning about the type of lighter to use and other useful information).

Manufacturers and Products would have had a section where users could have given their opinion (or a rating) because I don't think only your opinion (or anyone else's, I'm not criticizing anyone here) matters, because you might not like a particular vaporizer, while another user might love it wholeheartedly. That's why user feedback is so important and why this forum is so great (we need diversity).

All information is provided in tables for easy sorting (you can sort by brand, size, etc).

The aim was to find the "ideal" vape for you, but also to compare different vapes to find accessories that might match between several manufacturers such as mouthpieces (and perhaps also help accessory manufacturers find the information they need to offer us ever more beautiful things).

However the project didn't see the light of day because I'm so busy now (it takes an enormous amount of time to compile the information (and verify it with other operators if possible)) .. but that's not the only reason, in fact I had contacted several manufacturers to start listing information (I started here with bricks because I love bricks) however for the most part I never received answers to my questions ..

The project is called Vaporizon and I think it's great (the vapoteur's bible) but there are a lot of technical and human problems (I would have needed a moderator to check and validate the reviews, for example, because it can quickly become insurmountable). Unfortunately, the manufacturers didn't play along and for most of them I've been waiting for answers for several months now. Once again, compiling and verifying information given by a user or by the manufacturer directly takes an enormous amount of time, and of course it's very difficult to get all these vaporizers (especially for models or companies that have closed), so you need help for such a project.

However, I wish you every success, because a project like this would be fantastic

I wanted to also say that is a very cool looking app I would really like to try the sticky brick one day !

 

[Terpene Station]

@cannasoor that's a very thorough list of aspects. I think I can see what you mean about where it can lean from objective to subjective perspectives.

For example :

• danger (hot coil vs relatively cool normal desktop vape — seriously I think pets are going to make me put away the ball vape and go back to the XQ2)

EQ and XQ2 have been my daily for over 3 years and I've never burned myself but there was a learning curve and some close calls. I'd still say the XQ2 doesn't get nearly as hot as a ball vape but with exposed hot glass this at least to me seems why people splurge on the volcano. There are many people that would find the Arizer just as dangerous but I think cats and dogs for example can sense the heat and are smart enough to stay away but I would hate to be wrong.

You mention controls and yes for sure that and ergonomics, and design etc can be a mix of subjective and objective opinions

I like how much detail you put into your decision making and the aspects you shared. One that I personally would enjoy is to have some measure of accuracy between what is reported temp levels from the manufacturer for example on each power setting or readout versus actual temp measured and ideally where it counts. For example, the MiniNail has a very close to accurate readout temp that is set to closely estimate the inside of the banger or nail as opposed to the coil's temp.

where you mention growth room I find that interesting and get what you are saying. It got me thinking in the realm of upgradability, like can it be tweaked in some way? DDave comes to mind with E/XQ2. My temp setting took a nose dive after getting the short adapter but the screens leak and I found tripling them up helps but still can lead to problems with the circuit boards on the EQ but I think I am safe with the XQ2 and its isolated airpath. There are many tweaks for each unit and there will always be tons of new hacks. This aspect may not be that hard to collect.

Another thing I was thinking about is location of manufacturer. Using MiniNail again as an example. I was enticed to choose this company because I knew it was coming out of Seattle and built with American parts. But to be accurate there are in fact components made in China in the PID but I do believe it is entirely assembled in Seattle. I'm Canadian and proud that the Arizer is manufactured in Canada but I say that without actually knowing for sure! It's easy to say made in wherever but there can be many parts that are made in many parts of the world. I think people would like to know where units are made and manufactured etc. but this might be overwhelming. However for example you mention fragility and I believe this is akin to materials and the country where it was created and assembled etc.

heat up time seems to be reported quite often for many units online but a complete list could be tricky - or fun to find!

Where you listed water pipe attachment I like that and think it fits well grouped with other useful dimensional measurements.

Connectivity yes, I get what you are saying but you're absolutely right there are plenty of those who do.

Some of the aspects that you mentioned are publicly available across the internet and I educated myself better on scraping public available info and it's probably best to crowdsource as you mentioned.

dosing system - yes, for sure and I think this is where accessories come in again and you make a good point about seeking this out when buying.

you wrote:
"But if we could just have, for example, an up-to-date-ish list of (almost) all vaporizers, with contact info/links, prices, a few other things …

I mentioned before I would start in April. I was worried I had upset you and was too zealous or something but I am willing to try. Please let me know if that's cool with you or anything else for that matter. I can start with I guess the logical approach to putting together a list of as many weed vape companies as possible. Then decide on variables.

You wrote:

If it could reflect the genuine opinions of the right crowd in some summary way, without manipulation or bitterness in disputes … that would be amazing.

In many ways factual information is more useful in practical decision making. The word genuine is where things get tricky.


[For example, imagine some sort of fancy Data Science visualization display of distributions of opinions on two or three vapes under consideration, as regards, say, flavor and a couple other things. But, with some way to limit the data to the opinions of users who owned all of the vapes in question. Or perhaps limited to some crowd-determined subset of trusted sources. If everyone gets a say (potentially represented in the distribution), what's to dispute?]

This made me think of something like glass, metal and plastic but as a simple example. Beyond even just vaping. I enjoy cooking and how it overlaps vaping. For example, it is a fair estimation that people would agree glass tastes the best of the three. Of course there may be many exceptions but this is a fairly reasonable statement when it comes to taste and can be expanded and explored through aspects of material, build quality, attachments and on and on...in a more reasonable approach to describing taste as opposed to subjective opinions. Let the material for example be one of the guides of taste. If the intricacies and bells and whistles on a rig's design is what can determine cleaner taste, among other things, then I think this approach can be taken for vape design and other aspects too.




Thanks again for your responses and I got to ask, which vape did you end up choosing?