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Update on Heml.is

blog.brokep.com

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Re: Update on Heml.is

#11

Post by Grue3 »

ryanisinallofus wrote: post #6
Grue3 wrote: post #3

Snowden, kickstarter, bitcoins within the first few paragraphs. I see where this is going... scrolls to the bottom Yeah, thought so. It's amazing how you can raise more than $100k with this bullshit without having even basic qualifications to accomplish your plans. It's amazing how people fall for this kind of crap again and again. See also: Ritot watch, Arist coffeemaker and so on.

It is almost as if not every single project is a success.

It's almost as if you have project masterminded by "idea guys" without any regard for its technical, or even physical feasibility, designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator to attract people with little experience in investing, it is likely to end up being either a scam or a total failure.

Re: Update on Heml.is

#14

Post by Amir98 »

Ow:( This may be the saddest thing I read in a long time. I'm a very active person online (more than 10 hours/day) and have many friends in many countries that I communicate with on daily basis. Aside from Email, due to privacy concerns, I avoided any messaging platform (whether on FB, TW, Whatsapp, Viber, Skype, and any other platform) since 2003. I was eagerly waiting for the moment to introduce Hemlis to all my friends who have been complaining about my presence in online messaging platforms for more than a decade! Some of the issues you raised for the closure are very valid while I believe this project was more than just a secure messaging app. Its about an extremely respectable group of people (with spectacular track record on creating a better, open and free internet for everybody on this planet) start to work another project for the same better internet for all idea. I'm absolutely sure you all have thought about these points for a long time and all I want to say is even though I'm extremely disappointed, I will be the first one to support you on any other project that you guys are a part of (I really hope there is one soon) and I'm sure you did your best to prevent this from happening. Good luck to all of you:) Amir

Re: Update on Heml.is

#15

Post by Confusion »

joshstrange wrote: post #9

So this pisses me off more than a little. I've had multiple ideas that would be good for crowdfunding projects but never executed on them because I never mapped out enough of what I would do with said money. It felt wrong to ask for money without a solid plan of how to move forward. Just saying "this sucks give me money to fix it, and oh yeah, I have no plan but money + no plan = success right?" felt wrong (and I thi…

  People like this ruin crowdfunding for everyone else [..]
People like this will cause crowdfunding to mature. It would be good if we got to the point where you will only get funded if you first demonstrate you have a reasonable chance of succeeding. There's currently a lot of money going to doomed projects, initiated by people with only an idea. That money would be better spent on similar projects by people with a concrete plan and relevant skills and experience in addition to ideas.

It's not that people are malicious: they are just unprepared. Which is why many startups fail: people have no idea what they are getting themselves into. At least burning through your own money teaches a harsh lesson. Burning through free money hurts a lot less.

Re: Update on Heml.is

#16

Post by dates »

i feel like a secure messaging app should be OS in the first place though ?! textsecture / smssecure has been walking a slow and steady pace forward for years now, to me it seems like a project with vision/smart people that is worth putting resources into in wake of this one dying, if the product is something you are interested and believe in.

Re: Update on Heml.is

#17

Post by Touche »

Gurrewe wrote: post #7

So, whats to say that they didn't take the 100 000 USD and gave to themselves the first day and barely haven't cared about Hemlis since then?

It seems like it would be better if crowdfunding sites didn't give you the entire lump-sum up front but instead gave it to you incrementally as you completed pre-defined milestones.

So if you have 8 milestones you get 1/8 of the money up-front and then each time you achieve a milestone. If you take twice as long to achieve that first milestone and run out of your initial payment.... welp then you have to go back to the community and ask to renegotiate the arrangement.

Re: Update on Heml.is

#18

Post by joshstrange »

Confusion wrote: post #15
joshstrange wrote: post #9

So this pisses me off more than a little. I've had multiple ideas that would be good for crowdfunding projects but never executed on them because I never mapped out enough of what I would do with said money. It felt wrong to ask for money without a solid plan of how to move forward. Just saying "this sucks give me money to fix it, and oh yeah, I have no plan but money + no plan = success right?" felt wrong (and I thi…

People like this ruin crowdfunding for everyone else [..] People like this will cause crowdfunding to mature. It would be good if we got to the point where you will only get funded if you first demonstrate you have a reasonable chance of succeeding. There's currently a lot of money going to doomed projects, initiated by people with only an idea. That money would be better spent on similar projects by people with a co…

> Which is why many startups fail: people have no idea what they are getting themselves into. At least burning through your own money teaches a harsh lesson. Burning through free money hurts a lot less.

Couldn't agree more. I agree crowdfunding should require a little more upfront from the project managers (or rather we as a community should refuse to fund projects that don't) which will no doubt turn some people away from seeking crowdfunded money but that's probably for the best.

Re: Update on Heml.is

#19

Post by Touche »

Confusion wrote: post #15
joshstrange wrote: post #9

So this pisses me off more than a little. I've had multiple ideas that would be good for crowdfunding projects but never executed on them because I never mapped out enough of what I would do with said money. It felt wrong to ask for money without a solid plan of how to move forward. Just saying "this sucks give me money to fix it, and oh yeah, I have no plan but money + no plan = success right?" felt wrong (and I thi…

People like this ruin crowdfunding for everyone else [..] People like this will cause crowdfunding to mature. It would be good if we got to the point where you will only get funded if you first demonstrate you have a reasonable chance of succeeding. There's currently a lot of money going to doomed projects, initiated by people with only an idea. That money would be better spent on similar projects by people with a co…

The problem is that you can't reasonably estimate what it costs/takes to achieve some very-lofty goal.

The goals are simply too pie-in-the-sky. Set some very simple goal like getting an app with xmpp working first. Then do another campaign to add some security features. And so on.

Re: Update on Heml.is

#20

Post by mpeg »

"Just think – verification by SMS for all of the potential users would be millions of dollars even at a few cents per SMS."

What? They received $147,210 from 10074 backers, even if every SMS sent costs you $0.04 (pricing from twilio for my country) you can send 50 millon before it's costing you "millions of dollars".

Do you really think that 10k backers is going to translate into whatsapp-scale from launch?

Maybe try blaming it on server prices next, because the thousands of servers you will surely need are going to cost you millions too.

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