As the admittedly often inconsistent part-time EVDL moderator that folks love to hate, I'm going to step in here and draw the proverbial line in the sand (if I can find an open beach).
I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I also think that crowdfunding might have some potential value for someone who's trying to develop an EV for public sale (I think it's been suggested for the Sunrise II). However, what I think of as crowdfunding has a clear return for the contributors and for society in general. I don't see much of that going on here. OK, there are some "prizes" for participation, and a somewhat vague promise that the converted EV is to be used as a "promotional tool," but I don't get very much of "Help me help make the world better." I get more of "This is something I want to do." Not that there aren't plenty of other such personal projects that try for crowdfunding, but I think that probably most potential contributors can tell when that's the case. That's why I suspect that filling up the crowdfunding websites with too much of this stuff is apt to weaken their influence. I can tell you that I'm more jaded and skeptical about crowdfunding than I was a year or two ago. But I digress. At this point I'm not going to say "no crowdfunding proposals on the EVDL," at least not yet. I might, though, if it becomes excessive and I start seeing and hearing more gripes about it. However, I >AM< going to say that if you nag us about it, you'll probably be asked to cool it or leave. Here are some guidelines for now. If you'd like to suggest changes in these, or you think we should be 100% open, or 100% closed, please contact me offlist. See the bottom of http://evdl.org/help/ for the address. 1. A crowdfunding proposal to be posted on the EVDL must be EV related. (Duh.) 2. It must have a clearly articulated goal that goes beyond building one EV for one person, and provides a legitimate, well defined benefit for all of society. (This doesn't have to be an environmental benefit. EVs have lots of positives.) 3. If your crowdfunding announcement meets the above standards, you may post it ONCE on the EVDL. Make your post informational, not promotional. Be sure to include a web link for more information. The link should lead to a free, open web URL (no signup required to view the information). 4. Any further EVDL discussion about your effort should be about technical matters, and only in response to questions and comments from others. Anybody who wants to watch your funding progress will have the link, so don't post about it. DEFINITELY don't make more requests for contributions. For this specific situation: Drew (Stephen?), you've now posted twice, 2 days apart, both times unprompted. Sorry to say, you're now into nagging territory. Please let that be the end of it. We don't need to read anything more about this. OTOH, if you get your funding and find you need technical help with the project, feel free to come on back, and we'll do what we can. Thanks. David Roden EVDL Administrator http://www.evdl.org/ _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
