TideKit Failure – Blaming the Community? | Hacker News Reader

TideKit Failure – Blaming the Community?

3 pointsPaybackTony3 comments

Here is the automated e-mail I got from TideKit announcing the discontinue of their development. For those of you who don't know what it was, it was an attempt to create an all-in-one app development platform, almost along the lines of an Ionic and NodeWebkit (or Atom) in one. They actually took pre-orders (tickets to beta), and the time stating they were very close to letting Beta customers in.

Months and months went by and there was no movement, so after some complaints they began writing update blogs, again talking about how soon they were going to be opening up for beta testers.

And now, they send an e-mail saying they couldn't do it. The worst part is they seem to be blaming the community for wanting it too fast... Even though they continued to set expectations that were never met. This is a great example of how NOT to handle these complicated projects, and if they fail, another example of how NOT to handle the failure. The end of the e-mail is an attempt to take some blame but for me, a few paragraphs of deflection dampened that attempt. Am I taking the tone of this e-mail wrong?

---------- http://pastebin.com/a0S3B6w0

Matters are being taken into their own hands, as we have evidence showing that their only intention was to collect money. Original discussion: https://github.com/reduxframework/redux-news/issues/59

TideKitLawSuit@gmail.com

https://twitter.com/TideKitLawsuit

In case you haven't seen this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9875372

After reading the e-mail (I haven't seen this at all before, so I have no opinion about their communications and what has happened in the community), this reads to me like it was written by someone who is frustrated that their plan of how to do things wasn't understood/respected and is now fed up with the entire thing? Seems a bit weird, but I think it could totally be genuine (probably result of failure to communicate). And if money has changed hands for access to a product, they'll probably have a bunch of refunds to issue? (depends on exact terms of course)

They probably will. I don't expect a refund, and anyone paying that early for a product that isn't done should do so with the understanding that there is a chance you may never see what you paid for. With that said, this e-mail makes it stink a bit, and doesn't sit well with me, and after reading that issue on github it seems not with anyone else either. Seems to be a common theme on that thread that it's not as much the money as it is how they are handling the situation as a whole.

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