Because when vaping started it was pretty primitive, once RBAs hit the scene there was a massive level of innovation people were trying to learn how to create the perfect vape,how they could build on RBAs what materials thery could use for wicks , what wires were toxic or not, what wicks could give you health problems it was not like now...nowdays people take for granted the shit coming out of china is safe they assume... they are not doing their own reserch back then we did...todays vapers are operating off developments that happened years ago...Juice..we were going from cheap ass chinses junk juice to creating our own juices we were experimenting with diffrent flavors diffrent bases, we were trying to find out what was safe what was not what ingredints could lead to health problems...and we were sharing with each other the reason there is such a big community is because the community created the industry we created vaping I've seen plenty of ideas from forum members tinkering with their gear that were taken by some modder and used in there designs. Vaping wasn't created by some corporation with a research and development department it was created by the community experimenting and sharing results..even today I trust the research done by fellow vapers far more than the research done by the goverment. Vaping to me has been a validation and a magnifecent example of the creative power, and the brotherhood of people given they chance to use their creativity when it is not squashed by the goverment or corporations....just imagine how much better the world would be if the same level of creativity and brotherhood was directed at alot of our countries problems and the people were given the freedom to create the solutions it is obvious the powers that be are far more intersted in creating problems than they are in creating solutions...this community has done far more to end smoking than any goverment. I trust you lot more than anybody in washington....we have a big community because we needed each other to find solutions to challenges.
Also -- we're oppressed! Which naturally creates a political sensibility in a lot of us, giving rise to the idea of pulling together.