Goes around comes around joe

He deserves all the mockery at this point. All he had to do was make good on his promise to keep communicating, and he can't even carve out 10 minutes a week to post something for you all.

Loser.

there. I corrected that for you (even though, I had to edit my edit

Dear Joe,

Glad to see you and one of your interns are having a swell time. I sent you plenty of cash, so please dump that dopey shirt and get something Tommy Bahama. Thanks--looking forward to the next photo.

kickstarter joe (resized).jpg

ps
was she one of the "stretch goals" that we backers unwittingly provided?

He looks like a real winner!....and so professional looking. I'd hire him in minute to work for me.

I believe that Stern has some responsibility in this. I can say that without their involvement and promotion of the book 2 years ago at the Chicago Pinball Expo, I would not have backed this on Kickstarter. I think best case scenario is that they should fund completing the book and satisfy the commitment since the book is about their company.
At the very least, they should issue an apology and state they were taken for a ride just like those that backed this project.

I kept the faith for 2 years. I no longer have any for this book to be released by Joe.

Black knight called this one.

Red is Joe's color

Red is Joes color (resized).PNG

How did Joe get to Stern? Did he know someone there who vouched for him? If so, who? Surely Stern didn’t help promote someone who just cold called them...he had to have a path inside.

Does Joe have a normal job or was this book his primary means of income?

There's another possibillity:
Maybe Stern wanted to have their book made with zero financial risk and approached the Flockers?
We shall never know for sure.

They have wi-fi on the beach!

Why do I get the feeling this thread will be flaming on Monday.....

why didn't you post my comment?

So now we're getting updates on when the real updates will be coming ..

Joe is looking tanned, fit and ready to really get after it! Big news on Monday!

The first thing I thought too. Like Kevin, just looking at that photo I can tell what a lazy slacker with questionable integrity he must have.

Watch the Kickstarter video again and be as confused as I am about how Stern can stay silent on this BS

https://vimeo.com/187289878

Joe, I know you read this, so I am going to give you some unsolicited advice in an effort to try and help you.

- Don't write updates like this. It has no substance and contains the same promise you have already broken to your customers. This is poor PR.

- Understand that you currently owe your customers something. These aren't customers outside a closed store on Black Friday waiting to spend their money, they've already spent it with you. If you can't deliver their goods in a timely manner the LEAST you owe them is constant communication. Fix this ASAP by putting a 1 hour appointment on your calendar every Friday. End the week by crafting a message to your backers that gives them at least 1-2 points of accomplishment for the previous 7 days and an understanding of what you will be tackling over the next 7 days until the next update. This will be painful for you sometimes, as the truth isn't always the easiest to tell, but your customers deserve that.

- Become more transparent. Open up about things a company wouldn't normally open up about regarding their design/layout process and the progress they are making. Show some raw photos as you are working on them and get people excited again. You've worn down the hype due to delays and broken promises.

- Put in the raw hours. If you aren't personally putting in 50 hours a week on this project you aren't doing enough. It doesn't matter what other obligations you have. You are screwing up by not putting in the hours.

These all come from a place of trying to help you to become successful at these ventures, not tear you down. If you really want to be an entrepreneur pull your pants up and do the hard parts. It only takes 20% effort to get 80% done but that last 20% takes 80% of the effort.

In my day job I end up being brought in with escalated customers a lot, and after 15 years of it I still dread every single one of those calls/meetings. The hard parts never get easier to swallow but you have to do them to be successful.

Like my $150 ornament? #mostexpensiveornamentever

image (resized).jpg

I liked it so much I bought 2 of them...have one not even opened *RARE* (I know your jealous j_m_

image (resized).jpg

yeah, that's it. just rub it in that I didn't even get my $325 cardboard xmas ornament

Well that’s two guys that know how to f**k someone over....

See post 2300 in the "Let's close this thread down" thread for the latest Joe update....

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lets-close-this-thread-down/page/46#post-4714974

Link didn’t work. It said I didn’t have access.

Link works fine...

You must have the basement blocked. Unblock it or post to moderator thread.

That fixed it. Thanks!

Joe, today is the day you promised a substantial update for your backers. I hope you woke up ready to deliver.

If the update hasn't already been written, reviewed, edited, and waiting for you just to push the send button, you are already behind.

There's no way today's announcement isn't just some regurgitation of the past ones.

We are working hard.
Progress has been made.
We are excited.
We hired someone to do something.
Stern gave us information that we just have to include in the book.
Almost done writing the text.
Another cardboard ornament will be mailed.
We will post updates every week from now on.

Still on schedule for Christmas 2019.
Andrew Macbain hired to take over PR so updates come quicker.

I was going to comment on kickstarter, but I really don't see the point. if he considers taking 30 elements!!! from the stern asset discs (as he's joyfully stated) and slapping them on a spread, this man doesn't have a fucking clue what he's doing. some one the age of 8 could have done this (and probably have done a better job

there was no thought involved whatsoever in taking a bunch of stock images and just resizing them so that fit on a 2-page layout

but wait! the layout guy did overlay 2 of the elements over an image of the playfield. I'll bet that took him a week to do

seriously, the one guy that did comment on this update said "looks great, I can't wait!"

and as for his comment of "I know that we are making the best pinball book that we've ever seen", he might as well as stated "the best book that he's ever seen" because it's obvious he's never looked at any books (even comic books, which have much better layouts

I just want the book at this point. Dear God help us if Stern nitpicks it during approval.

I think the layout looks fine, only so much you can do without either displaying fewer pictures or having an overlapping mess. I get the frustration though, the delay and lack of communication has burned so much goodwill that some people aren't going to be happy no matter what ends up getting delivered.

I literally could have done that layout in ten minutes.

Whilst laying on a Caribbean beach with your laptop after you saw the sh*tstorm brewing on Pinside about your lack of progress.

It is a very amateurish layout, but I didn't want to be bitchy and point that out after demonstrating how bad their "photo retouching" skills are in the book sample. So, since you said it - I agree.

You can do a LOT more long before it becomes a mess. The visual interest just isn't there.

"Hope"....

Joe Hopes (resized).PNG