Commander X16

Recent events got me to thinking: "How badly do I want to see a successful outcome of this project?"  There's different degrees and definitions of what success would look like, but David in this post asked for money to get it done:


 

I, for one, would argue, that this board/site is populated by the die-hardest among X16 fans.  So here's my call to put up or shutup.

The recent discussion around what platform to host this board brought out some promises of money for that, I call on you to divert those funds to David.

David's patreon is: https://www.patreon.com/8BitGuy1

(at his highest level - $20/month - you can have a direct 15 minute conversation with him)

(but $1/month is also an option! And 3 other tiers besides that)

Or, as he details in: https://www.the8bitguy.com/how-to-donate/,

Direct donations can be made via Paypal to dfwgreencars@gmail.com, (he asks to put a note in the description or send him an email explaining the donation.)

For myself, I've just sent $50 via Paypal, and will evaluate later sending more.

So, how badly do you want it?

As soon as the project isn't 'for profit', sure.

On 3/18/2022 at 6:22 AM, Yazwho said:

As soon as the project isn't 'for profit', sure.

Do you actually think someone is getting rich from this?

If no one is going to take an income from it then it should definitely be 'Non profit', for the tax and licensing breaks at the very least.

As you can see from the recent posts financing isn't the problem. It appears to be a mix of technical and managerial problems.

Of course supporting content creators is a good thing, but dont think sending money now will hurry up this particular project.

On 3/18/2022 at 7:11 AM, Yazwho said:

If no one is going to take an income from it then it should definitely be 'Non profit', for the tax and licensing breaks at the very least.



As you can see from the recent posts financing isn't the problem. It appears to be a mix of technical and managerial problems.



Of course supporting content creators is a good thing, but dont think sending money now will hurry up this particular project.

Where did I say "hurry up"?  I said "successful outcome", I made no mention of timeline, you're inferring that, incorrectly.

As far as "financing isn't the problem", I'll include the text from the post I linked:  (the bold emphasis is mine)

Regardless of whether a crowd funding platform requires something or not, I have a reputation of integrity to uphold.  The last thing I want is people saying that the 8-Bit Guy took their money and didn't deliver on a promise.  However, I have been considering doing some sort of crowdfunding where it would literally just be asking for donations to keep this project alive.  An infusion of $20,000 with no requirement to repay it would go a LONG way to pushing this product out to the public.  $100,000 would guarantee a successful launch.   But that's a lot to ask.  I know there are several thousand people interested in this.  If everyone just donated $5 that would probably be an incredible help.

The quote is from August last year. The latest update makes it clear that the project group have had a communication problem. And there is no project manager what it seems. If the group becomes stable and functional I wouldn’t hesitate to donate money. Stephen Horn is offering some help. It seems like a good idea to ask if he could assist Michael Steil. For now I am sort of waiting to see what happens.

I'll add, this isn't a software project, it's a hardware project (and yes, before you point out the obvious, of course it also involves software, but let's focus, k?)

And hardware boils down to money. Getting it made requires more than sitting at a desk typing and clicking "commit".

If you think that money (or lack thereof) doesn't affect the other issues, then I'd say: think deeper.

So yeah, I'm seeing that the project is having trouble, and from my position all I can do is try to help alleviate some factor, the money factor.  Will my $50 ensure success?  Of course not.  But I'm willing to take that risk.

(edit: the above is meant in general, not a specific response to the posts above)

And what software is there, is specialized to support the system.  In other words, a necessary evil, if you would.

Every component affects the price -- in fact it looks as though the number of components is in a linear relationship to the price -- but we already know that the point isn't to minimize price.  My hope is that price is cheap, but their goal is for a platform, conforming to 8BG's vision,  that will support and thrive in the 8 bit retro ecology.

 

Right now, money isn't the issue, though the team definitely needs to be reimbursed for what they've spent.

The supply chain itself is the issue. They can't get the parts, even if the design was perfect and the code was perfect.  This doesn't just affect us, it affects any industry that uses Silicon chips.  The auto industry has hundreds of thousands of cars they can't sell yet because they're missing chips.

On 3/18/2022 at 8:21 AM, Ed Minchau said:

Right now, money isn't the issue, though the team definitely needs to be reimbursed for what they've spent.

Right, somehow in the last 7 months, the money issue just went away, magically...  gotcha.  Sorry, this response isn't just to you, it's to anyone saying money isn't the issue.

My call is this:  Do something to help push the project toward success.  If you can't help with the hardware or software, then join David's Patreon for $1 a month, or just Paypal him 5 bucks.  Let's hit it on all fronts.