Based on the comments, it looks like people are still waiting on handwritten thank-you notes and stickers which the Kickstarter project says were to be delivered in June/July 2012.

  > I ended up being able to allocate time on a less consistent
  > basis, largely because starting a company (tilde.io) ended up
  > offering fewer opportunities for dedicated, isolated work than
  > I expected.

The stated goal for raising $25K (and any excess) was to take time off of work to dedicate 100% to this, at least until Rails.app shipped. What happened?

> Based on the comments, it looks like people are still waiting on handwritten thank-you notes and stickers which the Kickstarter project says were to be delivered in June/July 2012.

I have been furiously writing them over the past few weeks (at a pace of about 30 per day). I have about 500 to do in total and I've done about 300 so far. My intent was to deliver them around the same time as the beta release, so that the thanks would be meaningful.

> The stated goal for raising $25K (and any excess) was to take time off of work to dedicate 100% to this, at least until Rails.app shipped. What happened?

You're absolutely right. The original plan was to be able to take a few months off of work and use it to replace any lost company revenue. In other words, I was going to pay for my own time to replace consulting revenue. Co-founding a company turned out to be more time-consuming than I expected (I know that sounds stupid, but it's the first time I did it), so I wasn't able to purchase my own time in a single block. Instead, I used whatever available time I could manage and used the money to fund smaller blocks of time.

I also used some of it to fund full-time work by Patrick Gibson, an amazing iOS/Cocoa developer (he worked on the original iPad build process for Apple and the Batch app) who works for Tilde, so I could focus my energies on the necessary Ruby code.

I'm really sorry that my original estimates didn't work out. That was absolutely a mistake on my part and I have learned a lot from the mistake (and my inability to follow my original plan precisely has caused me a great deal of heartburn). In the long run, I will not allow this error to prevent Tokaido from shipping. See my other comments on this thread for more details.

I think some folks might take issue with the idea that you were starting a company while this project was in progress. (I didn't contribute, and I understand multi-tasking, but my impression was raised funds were to capture your undivided attention; unsure if others had same interpretation)

I had publicly started Tilde about six months before starting the Kickstarter.

I said that I would use the money to take time off from work to dedicate to Tokaido. I naïvely assumed I would be able to take that time off in a large block, but that wasn't possible. Instead, I took off time as I had it available, in spurts rather than all at once. I isolated the money so that I would mark portions as "earned" only as I (or Patrick, who did much of the OSX work) actually worked on the project, so I did use the money to dedicate time to work on the project.

I am extremely sorry that my original plans for dedicating a block of time turned out to be infeasible. It was my mistake and one that I have learned from the hard way.

It's great that you've isolated those funds, and are accounting properly. I think a number of "failed" crowd-funded projects fail in this regard.

I know on the project you referenced using Harvest to track time - perhaps you could use Harvest's API to publicly disclose how much of the funding has been "burned down"? (I think this would be a good idea for all Kickstarter projects)

Yehuda, I want to say thank you for your efforts on this. I understand that the plan changed, no problem. When I look at all the volunteering you do (W3C’s TAG?) I can't believe there is only one copy of you.

This guy has worked on all sorts of awesome shit that he gives completely free to the community. Heaven forbid he miscalculate time like 90% of Kickstarter. Yehuda clearly didn't take the money and spend it on beer and hookers so let's collectively get off his ass about sending a few postcards out late.

>This guy has worked on all sorts of awesome shit that he gives completely free to the community.

Wasn't those things sponsored by his employeer, Engine Yard?

He worked on them on their time and dime.

Every Kickstarter project gets delayed, and as Kickstarter keeps hush about, funding a project gives you exactly zero guarantees of anything. If you expected anything less, well, I can't entirely blame you, but you should have known better.

Funding a Kickstarter project creates a legal obligation on behalf of the project creator to provide the reward for the donated amount [0], even if the project itself is ultimately unsuccessful.

Of course, should a project go so off-track that a backer is compelled to seek a refund their claim is against the creator, as Kickstarter disclaims any responsibility.

[0] http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/kickstarter%20basics#IsA...

I take this legal obligation seriously and am in the process of fulfillment (see other comments on this thread).

I was addressing calinet6's comment that one should expect nothing from a Kickstarter project. Sorry if my comment came across as implying you weren't fulfilling the rewards; it was meant in the generic sense. It's awesome that you're on top of things.

I don't really care when tokaido ships. I've been very grateful to being able to piggyback on your work for years now. A few bucks to back whatever you want is the least I can do.

Awesome and glad to hear that. Please post this (or just a link to this?) over on Kickstarter though, I'm guessing most of them don't read HN daily.

Thank you for the update. I'm glad the project is still progressing. Also, thanks for mentioning Michal Papis. I know he's been working hard on binary builds of Ruby for both RVM and Tokaido.

I'm using my first post to thank you for what you already have done and look forward to this when it is ready. In my experience, biting off more than it turns out you can chew is a trait common to prodigious coders such as yourself. There is no better evidence than the (audacious!) projects you have tackled and completed in the past - leaving me confidant you will deliver Tokaido and it will be awesome. (but curious about all the hand-wringing by those surely not aware of your accomplishments) Code you have released freely in the past helps puts food on the table of lesser developers such as myself and I just wanted you to know you are appreciated.

This will make future Rails Girls events a breeze. :) Thanks for all your hard work on this and everything else.

Thank you for doing this! Can't wait :)

>I initially anticipated that I'd be able to spend a number of full-time months on the work. I ended up being able to allocate time on a less consistent basis

So you pocketed money from Kickstarter contributors to do something, and then you put the project in the back burner and gave priority to something else.

And not for serious health or personal reasons (which would be totally understandable). Just to start another business.

Nice.

Will keep it in mind the next time somebody asks me to fund a Kickstarter project.

Seems like I've been "slow banned" for the above.

Taking people's money and giving the job less that what you promised is apparently OK, but scolding someone for doing it is to be frowned upon.