I don't feel like accusing him, it's a very complicated situation. We all know he has been scammed no objection on that, we are in right to feel as bitter as he is. We also invested and lost.
I've read he spent part of the money on other parts he has in his stock than what the chinese manufacturer took.
That means a part of our money has been spent on parts he has right now.
Why not using them to complete the project and minimize the loss ?
I'm curious how much out of 100 bucks he spent with this chinese scammer.
Let's say hypothetically that we forget what that chinese manufacturer took. And suppose it makes 50% of the initial fund.
This would mean there's still 50 bucks from 100 in parts invested.
I would prefer to give him another 50 bucks boost, and save those 50 bucks to avoid the waste of what is already bought with our money, if he's sure of what he needs to finish the project and if he manages this with a trusted supplier.
Now there's the mental illness message, I can understand this, and have empathy, but I find this confusing inside the campaign annoucements, I don't know how to interpret that.
Reliability in project management is also based on good health, if he's not able to continue it's better to say it clearly.
There are no problems only solutions. The first solution I see is to say there's a big lost part and ask for people who want to continue to fund more, but losing all the rest of the money seem a bit too much to me to understand. Second solution would be passing the project to someone else and start where it has stopped.
Even the refund process is quite unusual, why refunding 100% of the first guys and lose all the rest of the money ? Isn't that quite a predictable suicide ?
I don't get it completely, I think it's hard to be in his place but some things in terms of management don't make too much sense to me. A bit too emotional. I know it's easier to criticize than doing projects but criticism could help to go ahead.
Short version : if he still has parts it's better to use them than wasting them, and I prefer him to stay involved and help him with more money and encourage him, if he feels like retiring because he's sick, no use to involve him anymore, he can send us the parts and someone could take over the project while he takes care of his health because that's the first priority for everyone.