MB-808 third run - delays; forum down

[jaidee]

Has anyone here signed up for the third run of MB-808 PCBs/parts kits being organised by Doug Wellington?

Deposits were invited in December 2009 ($100, so not an insignificant sum). Doug eventually got round to sending out acknowledgements of receipt to those who ponied up .... in June 2010.

There's been precious little activity otherwise. Promised but yet to appear are a final price for the kits, details of the kit contents, details of the revisions to the PCB, and to the parts list, and a consolidated build document.

Doug flagged up several months ago that he is still waiting for an order of special pots to come in; but there is no obvious reason why waiting for the pots has prevented progress on any of the above.

Doug has also posted about health and other family problems.

Recent postings to the forum from list members have mainly been complaints about lack of communication, in particular in relation to requests for the return of deposits from those who have lost faith in the project.

The forum is run by Doug.

The forum is no longer accessible. There is simply a note on the web site saying that the forum is being upgraded to a newer version and will "be back as soon as it's done". If the timescale which seems to operate with all other aspects of the project is anything to go by, it will not be any time soon.

There was, so far as I am aware, no advance warning that the forum was going to be closed for "upgrading".

Any views on whether I should be concerned by this?

A couple of months ago, one of the list members indicated that he was setting up an alternative group for MB-808 discussion. I can't remember who or where it was - and of course the forum is now inaccessible so I can't check back through the postings.

Does anyone know whether the alternative group/forum got off the ground??

[vtl5c3]

To me the message about the forums being down is a sign of life... but what do I know? I'm lucky in that I have my board, most of the parts and have made copies of all of the build articles.

[Luka]

midibox forum would be a better place to vent as that was dougs main domain i believe

it says on that note that he would ship by end of year whether he had pots or not so perhaps wait till that till you get too crazy.

[Brogram]

I sold my spot (deposit) to someone else. I couldn't deal with waiting any longer, constantly checking the forum and not getting answers to any key questions. It's nothing personal at all, I hope Doug the best. It just gave me too many worries and was incredibly confusing.

-Eric

[Brogram]

P.S about the deposit, I was unable to get a refund from Doug as he said that he couldn't afford to give it back to me so I was forced into selling it to another
forum member.