Crowdfunding for history book

[js at cimmeri.com]

On 2/11/2015 12:43 PM, Christian Liendo 
wrote:
>> Sure it computes.  Vintage computing currently is just hobby-worthy
>> and your little Man-On-Street quotes appearing here and there are
>> hardly income worthy.  Your experience compared to the Real Guys on
>> this list (of which I don't qualify to rank as either) barely qualifies
>> you as anything, much less a "talking head" for vintage computing.
>> You're a talking head for MARCH.  That's it.
>
> So I have read a number of books about vintage computers and the companies behind them and they are not written by people who have a passion for the subject and thus take the time out to write about it. Yes Evan is the talking head for MARCH, but he knows many of the "real guys" and he communicates with them. So here is a person who is passionate and has access to people to help him get the correct info on the subject.

Points all well-taken.  But did these 
guys ask Evan to write this book?   If 
Evan was *requested* by a mobile 
computing enthusiast community, then 
certainly, yes, they should fund his 
endeavor.


>> Why should people PAY you to write a book?
> Because otherwise it may never be written. Who else will do it?

That begs the question as to whether it 
really needs doing it all.



> Not interested? Don't donate. But at least be a more civil about it.

Point taken, but I found the tone of 
Evan's message (and others of his 
recently) to be overly self-aggrandizing 
and whiny at the same time.   If he's 
going to post in a public forum, the 
forum is entitled to have its 
reactions.   I'm not asking anyone else 
to agree with or share in my reaction.

Had the request been written from a 
different angle, with a bit of humility 
and lack of complaining about being 
underemployed, I would not have been 
annoyed by it.

- J.