Black Rainbow Project needs your help!

While things might look quiet from the outside, there's actually a lot going on here.
Custom hardware is coming along really nicely and will be ready for testing very soon, and new machines are being purchased to help speed up certain processes.
I am really looking forward to prototyping the new ideas.

Great news Scott.

Donated. Good luck!

Much appreciated! There is still forward progress, and I wish I could share it with you... But I need to wait until the bag is closer to completion... And due to the amount of custom made hardware and the cost of the cad/prototype machining, it's a slow process. Which only makes your donation even more important.
Thanks for your support!

This whole thread makes for uncomfortable reading, did you make any effort to secure funding through conventional means? It seems pretty unethical to solicit money from people, for a private enterprise that only benefits you.

Except that a lot of said people have benefitted from BRP’s skills in the past.

They paid for a product, there was an exchange of goods for money. Would you approach a group of your friends and ask for 6 grand, whilst making it clear they would not repaid with money or products. It's just asking for free money.

How is it unethical? Whether or not you agree with the funding method, he hasn't promised anything to anyone, he's just asked for donations. It's up to you whether on not you think it's a good idea. If he'd have promised something in return for donations and then not delivered, that would be unethical.

He appears to be exploiting people's goodwill for his own financial gain. Think a number of posts further up hinted that people would have been more comfortable with Kickstarter, whereby they got something for their investment. It's a business he's starting, not a charity and he is the sole beneficiary of any subsequent profit. Think it's cheeky as fuck to ask for money without any thought of repaying it even with token goods.

Do you even gofundme, bro? That is what that site is there for. BRP is completely open about that.

You can actually give without expecting something in return.. Crazy, i know.

It's not the giving that I have a problem with, it's the asking.

How do people know to give if someone doesn't ask?

The church will advise us

As it appears I'm in the minority of 1, it seems prudent to refrain from further polluting this thread. BRP obviously doesn't qualify as a worthy cause to me, but each to their own.

If you don't ask, you don't get. We were all within our rights to tell him to go fuck himself, but some of chose to help out. No matter how large or small a donation we made, we did it freely, knowing we wouldn't see anything in return, but had the opportunity to help a fellow cyclist, and forum member, who has had to deal with some shit, try and get his passion/craft back on track.
What makes for uncomfortable reading is your complete lack of compassion and lack of faith in a fellow human being. None of us were duped, we gave because we could and wanted to.
Sorry to be blunt, but there was no need for your comments, so (un)kindly, fuck off!

Harsher than i might have been but i agree with this^

It's as if you believe everyone's being manipulated, we just want to help someone out

"soliciting"-> asking, "exploiting" -> giving without expectation, "unethical" -> seems to be back to the asking.

It's worth also considering that not only has the ask been transparent - no false promises given, and doesn't target any individual, but many of us know BRP to some extent either online or IRL, and really we can make up our own minds whether we want to freely give him money or not. It's a nice thing, if that makes you uncomfortable maybe reconsider why.

Thank you for bestowing you wisdom upon me. Maybe I was wrong, but this kind of small-minded moral absolutism only succeeds in completely shutting down any kind of discussion. Your trite posturing is so fucking cheap.

If you were going to approach friends for a considerable sum of money to invest in a business, would you do so with a plan for repayment?

Yes, you were wrong. Still you don't seem to understand, we didn't lend, we donated. What do you expect to get back when you donate?

Now a semantics lesson, thanks for oldmansplaining. I am aware you donated and am not questioning your right to do so. My wider point is that organisations like Gofundme have obfuscated what qualifies as and who is deserving of charity. To put it simply I would donate to Mind and invest in BRP.

As it appears I'm in the minority of 1, it seems prudent to refrain from further polluting this thread.

Indeed

Well if you chose to get off your ever so high horse, and quit teaching this niave, trite, oldmansplainer the error of his ways, maybe you'd see why I reacted the way I did to your initial post.
I'm all open for discussion, but this is not the place for us to get vitriolic with one another. Pm me any time you like.
Sorry Scott, we'll take this elsewhere.

Seems like exactly the right place to be having this discussion. I am willing to concede that I could have approached this topic with greater empathy and may be entirely wrong, but nonetheless there's an important conversation to be had. Personally I believe these type of requests should be limited to registered charities that benefit the many and not the few. I can't help but think that a number of people have donated after reading about Scott's struggles with mental health and that Mind would have been a more appropriate beneficiary. Lastly maybe BRP would benefit from having a fully-costed business plan appraised by a bank, having conceded that business acumen lets him down.

In these dark, dark times of under-resourced services and finite availability of charitable donations there are surely more deserving recipients of your money, than a mans business.