Re: TransWarpGS Clone Preorders open!

[chris.hafner@gmail.com]

Hi Conrad,

I'm really excited about this project, but I think you may have misread IUnknown a bit and came down a bit hard. To snip a few pieces here, he said:

> I am very interested ...
> I am a bit skeptical (technically, then goes into the reasoning for skepticism) ...
> Any info you can provide would be helpful
> you are going to need to provide clear high-rez photos if you expect folks to spend $180
> Sorry if I am sounding harsh

This is pretty tame stuff. 

Your response:
> I'm kind of a little upset that you didn't do a bit more research before making such thinly-veiled accusations of fraud ...
> I take your attack on my product personally ...
> ... completely baseless accusations ...
> ... I'll just take a page from your book and assume the absolute worst since I don't know any better ...

I didn't see any accusations of fraud, an attack on the product, or an assumption of the absolute worst. I saw a question as to whether your approach is technically feasible, and you answered that, so hopefully everything is hunky dory.

I do however think he makes a good point about making people feel more assured about what they'd be spending their money on. I think when people decide to spend money on vintage computer hardware (or really anything not sold through a major, reputable retailer), they think through these three factors:

- The good intentions of the party they're sending their money. Is this party an honest saint, well-intentioned but flaky, just outright shady, an outright con artist, somewhere in between? I think you're concerned about this point, but I don't think anybody has questioned your good intentions. And really, if you were intent on fraud, trying to rip off the Apple II community would be a pretty poor business plan.

- The abilities of the party they're sending their money. Does this party know what they're talking about? Again, it seems to me you've answered these questions. You know the TranswarpGS card (at least as far as I can tell - I'm not a hardware expert), and you seem to know manufacturing and how it can be cloned.

- The exact nature of the product they're purchasing. What does it look like? How much information can we get? What are the spects? Has an example of the board been tested to work and not damage my machine? Has the exact board I'd be buying been tested to work and not damage my machine? Have other people in the community used this and given it the thumbs-up?

This is the key question people are bringing up, I think. It helps that this card is meant to be an exact clone of a known entity. The features and benefits are clear, and we're all excited about it.

But speaking for me personally, while I'm interested in buying one of your clones, it's a tough road to pay $180 on a preorder without the rest of what I described above - a schematic, pictures, evidence that the cloned card was executed correctly by your supplier, knowledge that the cards will arrive (I've dealt with supplier issues before, and they do happen), and that it's tested and works without damaging the machine. This is the kind of background available that makes people comfortable ordering from Rich Dreher, or Vince Briel, or from Reactive Micro (RIP).
 
This isn't meant to reflect poorly on you - after all, it's not like you're withholding that information from us, as you haven't had a chance to see the finished product yet either. But, speaking personally, this is why I think I'll wait for the production run - for me, the $20 savings isn't worth the warm and fuzzies I'd have for a finished, tested product.

I'm definitely a big fan of what you have planned and can't wait to see the final result.

Cheers,
Chris Hafner