[Max]

I feel sorry for the gullible that were sucked into the promise a cool micro drone for what today is the cost of a reasonable 250. Plus all that time wasted waiting for undelivered promises!

http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/11/9...on-mark-harris

In November, the company behind Europe's biggest ever Kickstarter project told its backers it was shutting down. The Torquing Group had raised more than £2.3 million ($3.6 million) to fund its palm-sized Zano drone, but after delivering only around 600 of the 15,363 units paid for, the company went into liquidation. Now, with frustrated backers still smarting from their loss, Kickstarter wants to find out what went wrong. The company has hired technology journalist Mark Harris "to write a story about the collapse of the Zano drone project on Kickstarter."

In a blog post on Medium announcing the news, Harris writes: "[Kickstarter] wants to help the backers of this failed project get the information they are entitled to under their agreement with the project creator. They would like to uncover the story of Zano, from its inception to the present, and decided that the best way to do that was to hire a journalist." Harris says his "primary audience" is the Zano's original backers, and that he will try to publish the story "in the middle of January."

""I have no other connection to [Kickstarter], nor to anyone on the Zano team.""

Harris says Kickstarter is paying him upfront for the work, and that he will also investigate the crowdfunding firm's own involvement ("whether it could have served Zano’s creators or backers better throughout") as well as the decisions of the Torquing Group. "I have no other connection to [Kickstarter], nor to anyone on the Zano team, and have no particular axe to grind," says Harris, adding that he did not back the Zano project himself.

It's an unexpected moved from Kickstarter, which has so far dealt with the fallout from the Zano project in its usual fashion, reminding the public that backers are not shoppers and that they're taking a risk when they put their money behind a project. But if Kickstarter is worried that some of the shine is wearing off the crowfunding dream, then it's in its interests to investigate projects like the Zano, which has attracted a lot of attention given the amount of money it raised. At the very least, an honest answer to the question "what went wrong?" may soothe some of Zano's disappointed backers.

+ YouTube Video

[Warbird_ace]

Well, there's 2 ways to look at this.
Yes, you do risk your own money on these projects.
However, there have also been many successful projects that have gotten their funding from generous people as well and wouldn't be here if it wasn't for people.
It will be interesting to see what comes of the investigation. It was only a matter of time before someone kickstarted a "Wicked" idea then takes off with the funds (if that's the case). Hopefully this doesn't tarnish future projects....

[Max]

Of course, I am not knocking kickstarter.

But sometimes common sense is needed.

This is not the first drone that is tanking.

I posted another thread here about another kickstarter drone that is also failing to deliver.
The "promised" features of that drone, that was once "NEW AND UNIQUE" is now a common feature. These people paid premium bucks almost 3 years ago and still have nothing.

I argued that if they bought a phantom 3 years ago for the same money, they would have had the pleasure of flying a drone for 3 years and by today could have sold the old drone (or upgraded as some allow) and have the "cool" features on any one of todays modern drone NOW. As they sit today with their Kickstarter "purchase", 3 years later, they have not even gotten a chance to even HOLD a drone, let alone fly one.

[bcsaltchucker]

I always wonder about these crowd-funding things. Like that 140 gram super quad 'Onagfly that I posted about. There is always the risk it is vaporware, and my $200 would be gone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhzQ...ature=youtu.be

I did buy into one crowdfunding drone though. The Techpod fixed wing drone. Was not cheap (like $250) but I did receive the goods. Trouble is, it was a very flawed design I am afraid to fly it any more despite doing some mods the make the wing stronger. And the design was sort of stolen from the guy's employer. Now the Techpod design is sold today, a much improved record-breaking design. The new Techpod came out later by his employer, called the Asia Tech Drone - Cyclops. And I put 50 hours into building a dud.

Used to be folks would do a penny stock sell for such a unlikely venture, and everyone knew it was a high risk investment, but if you got on the ground floor of a future Microsoft it made it worth the huge risk. Like putting your chips all on a single number playing roulette. I mean, there was 95% chance you;d lose the whole investment. Now with any new venture I see on crowdfunding sites, there is no reason to see them as any less risky than a penny stock, IMHO, even though you're not even buying stock, just a hope for a dreamy new product.