on what constitutes the "Australian pinball community".
There has been a recent post made in the Homepin thread here which I believe needs correction as it does a disservice to the integrity of the broader Australian pinball scene.
The post in question is this one below:
and makes the generalisation that the Australian pinball community gave it's full (impliedly unquestioning) support to the new (at the time) pinball venture from Homepin.
I have largely let the Homepin thread roll along to its inevitable drawn out climax because most pinsiders outside of Australia have been smart enough to have avoided being caught up in this financially but the above post demands an obvious correction inasmuch as it paints the entire Australian pinball community as a bunch of drones who lack the foresight to do their own due diligence on new pinball manufacturers.
This is far from the case as most people within the Australian pinball community who have no local forum loyalty ties were highly skeptical and dubious about this new startup based behind the bamboo curtain and certainly had no inclination in putting money down with such even as far back as 2013 and less than a week after the project was first announced. In fact, some of those (including yours truly) after doing due diligence felt that these concerns should be voiced not only on a local level, but should the need arise on an international platform as well. Unfortunately in the case of the former that wasn't permissable at the time as explained further on.
The reasons for this were numerous and without going into specifics there were instances of past behaviours when money for a new venture had been taken, and with less than 10% paid for product being delivered years later, the excuses as to why the remainder could not be delivered began surfacing. This scenario should sound very familiar to those who have been following this local Aussie saga for any length of time.
The reality is that the only Australians down here who have cheerleadered this venture from the beginning without question have been those with direct ties to either of the two local forums namely AussieArcade.com and Aussiepinball.com. This is because the Admins of both forums have had up until recently prolonged commercial financial arrangements with Homepin stretching back years and which has allowed them to maintain the narrative that all was above board with Homepin Aus Pty Ltd or the Katana HK Trading Company or whatever business name Homepin was/is now trading under.
In light of how the entire venture has inevitably gone pear shaped both forums have subsequently removed all references to Homepin and one has taken the added steps of refusing to allow the company to even be mentioned in any context - embarassed about their ineptitude, covering up their level of culpability? You decide but this is why there are a number of new Aussie prepayers now making their voice be known in the Homepin thread on pinside as the local avenues for redress have been severed.
To put it into perspective these two forums combined constitute approximately 5% of the total Australian pinball community so to infer that "full support for this venture was right across the Australian pinball community" is not only disingenuous but insulting to the intelligence of the 95% who don't have local forum loyalties but do have the ability to use their own critical thinking and engage in due diligence.