How was this allowed to happen?

[polyp2000]

First I hear about this - and due to a one off tweet by Jeri Ellsworth its now cancelled. Way to go Jeri!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/10/ellsworth_tweet_prompts_bread_bin_cancellation/

N...

[trekiej]

Sorry to hear it.

[spirantho]

It seems like he didn't really know what he was doing anyway. Better that it gets cancelled now than when he's squandered $150,000.

[Matt_H]

He would have been better off spending the money to buy the C64x case and keyboard molds from Barry Altman's estate and then hiring Jeri to do a production run of the C64-DTV motherboard, which had solder pads for all the important C64 ports on it. No engineering required, just business.

[Iggy]

Since Jeri's C-One never came close to its goal, it seems unsettling that our little "nerd girl" would have the nerve to post something like this.

[commodorejohn]

Since Jeri's C-One never came close to its goal, it seems unsettling that our little "nerd girl" would have the nerve to post something like this.

It doesn't take a business tycoon to point out that just picking a number out of thin air and expecting a successful project to materialize around the money is ridiculous, and Jeri certainly knows enough about the subject.

[CritAnime]

Enthusiasm can bring out the best and worst in us. It was an obviously flawed project from the start. But then again most modern projects that carry the Commodore name tend to be flawed in some manner.

[Duce]

She could and should have handled it in a better way.  As John said, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that pulling a $150,000 number out of ones behind and asking for crowdfunding is laughable at best and suspect at worst.   I do think Ellsworth would have been better off by pointing out the flaws to his logic in a more private fashion that may have brought him into the reality zone and perhaps the project would have continued.  

Twitter makes people vengeful and ugly, it's far much easier to just lambaste someone rather than engage them with realistic and helpful conversation.  I expected better than a public naming and shaming out of Ellsworth, tbh.

[magnetic]

He would have been better off spending the money to buy the C64x case and keyboard molds from Barry Altman's estate and then hiring Jeri to do a production run of the C64-DTV motherboard, which had solder pads for all the important C64 ports on it. No engineering required, just business.

What are you talking about? I'm sure Jeri doesnt have the rights to do any "production run" of C64-DTV. Its owned by a company lock stock and barell. She actually got majorly screwed on the deal from what I heard...

[CritAnime]

If you follow some of the converstations form it She isn't exactly remorseful about the acustation.
 
(Had to post from mobile as twitter is banned on works computers)
https://mobile.twitter.com/jeriellsworth
 
@magnetic
 
She is probably acustomed to been shafted considering she has recently been shafted by Valve too.

[Iggy]

It doesn't take a business tycoon to point out that just picking a number out of thin air and expecting a successful project to materialize around the money is ridiculous, and Jeri certainly knows enough about the subject.

By "Jeri certainly knows enough about the subject. ", do you mean that she knows about "picking a number out of thin air and expecting a successful project to materialize".
Because, then, we would be in agreement.
As I mentioned before, the sky high goals for the C-One were enough to put me off Jeri's pet projects. It seemed right from the start that there would be no way with limited resources to realize those goals.
Ditto with the Natami.
So Jeri can take a verbal dump on someone elses relatively modest plan, but no one is supposed to remind her that her own plans didn't pan out?

Get real. I've been around Amigans too long to not know that when you shoot for the sky, you invariably crash and burn.

[commodorejohn]

I'm not trying to say Ellsworth shouldn't have handled it better, or that she hasn't had her own issues with projects not panning out (though...I'll admit I'm not up on the full details of the C-One, but according to Wikipedia it actually did sell a couple hundred units, and she certainly wasn't asking for crowd-funding.) But as cool as I find the idea of crowd-funding, you need to actually be able to follow through, and that doesn't happen through the sheer power of wishing and throwing money at anything that comes up.

[CritAnime]

Most crowd funding ventures, even if it could be followed up on, end in faliure. The only reason it went on Idegogo is because it is more lax than say Kickstarter on what is allowed to be posted. Pretty sure you need some form of actual working prototype and more solid buisness plan than just "oh it might work" for it to get on kickstarter.
 
Now reading some of the comments people made about this project a lot mentioned the Pi. I know from experience that getting Vice to run on a Pi is a royal pain in the backside. But it would have made a good viable option. But would have still needed a considerable investment.

[Argo]

He would have been better off spending the money to buy the C64x case and keyboard molds from Barry Altman's estate and then hiring Jeri to do a production run of the C64-DTV motherboard, which had solder pads for all the important C64 ports on it. No engineering required, just business.

And in seconds you just came up with a possible working business plan that this guy had not even bothered to think of even one, much less research costs.
I've seen this alot on Kickstarter. Awesome idea, overflowing enthusiasm for project, no clue where to start much less the skills, Give me money!

[CritAnime]

Jeri in one of her tweets admits she is sitting on a stock of the SOC's used for the dtv.