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Update on Heml.is

blog.brokep.com

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Re: Update on Heml.is

#2

Post by herbig »

I actually forgot I contributed to this.

Pretty disappointing, but it sounds like a totally reasonable series of events so I don't have hard feelings.

Signal / Textsecure are great apps, so I'd look to that if you're looking for security.

Re: Update on Heml.is

#3

Post by Grue3 »

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.

Re: Update on Heml.is

#4

Post by buster »

"I personally had other issues as I got kidnapped by the swedish government and locked up for my work with another project – The Pirate Bay. In the middle of the kidnapping, my father died."

Ouch... sincere condolences.

P.S.: I contributed and i understand your reasons to let it go. Fine with me. At least you tried, which is someting most of "us" don't even do.

Re: Update on Heml.is

#6

Post by ryanisinallofus »

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.

Re: Update on Heml.is

#8

Post by theintern »

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?

Nothing, but that's the risk of crowdfunding. At least in this case it was someone quite well known in the community with some sort of track record (flattr). Projects fail, and to be honest, it was always a possibility here with his legal problems.

Re: Update on Heml.is

#9

Post by joshstrange »

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 think it IS wrong). Also losing 30K is not small amount of money and the fact it got a single sentence is really weird.

People like this ruin crowdfunding for everyone else, they played on emotions to raise a significant amount of money (whether or not that amount was enough to complete the project at hand does not matter) and have nothing to show for it. Sure "We have apps but they are bad so we don't want to release them" is "something" but by not OS'ing them or releasing them as-is they have effectively nothing that they delivered on.

If they realised they were in over their head at the start then they should have sat down and planned it out instead of throwing money at the problem till it is all gone. They should have turned around and refunded at least a partial amount of each pledge (sans fees/processing) once they realized this was beyond what they could do.

This "Give me money" and then "Yeah... about that money, it's all gone..." is akin to theft in my mind. If I pay into a crowdfunding campaign I am buying into the idea you sold me. If you didn't think through your idea all the way then that's your fault. It's little better than ponzi scheme with the difference being intent to defraud customers in my opinion...

Lastly I've seen some comments about how crowdfunding is not a certain thing and some things fail. I don't disagree but if a project goes silent then that's theft in my eyes, not just failing. If a refund is not possible then at a very least donate what is left to the EFF (publically) or similar because to keep that money is just dead wrong in my book.

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