Which is kinda like saying, “Why can we land a man on the moon but can’t cure the common cold”. I mean, it’s “just one thing”. Until you find out it isn’t just one thing.

~Thebigkahuna

Sir, I have been a long time reader of this blog. This is not your best made point. Your analogy to the cure for the common cold is in poor taste. Those who worked, and continue to work, toward advancing a cure for the cold never claimed to have one. Waytools, however, DID make an analogous claim in saying that they were 30-60 days from release in 2015 (I leave the exact verbiage of Waytools’ quote to those who are inclined to seek it; all who are reading this know my claim to be true).

So, perhaps Waytools made an honest mistake in their claim. Perhaps they truly did not anticipate the technical nor temporal scope of the task before them…this seems unlikely. The language of their postings, their engineering prowess belie an acumen that is not quite in the mold of the inocent child, ignorent to the scope of an obviously great and long journey. Evidence to the contrary; it seems likely that Waytools purposefully misrepresented, and continues to misrepresent their engineering timelines. A 30 month miss on a deadline is an inexcusably stupid, short-sighted, and misguided mistake; yet timbre of their forum replies, the scope of their product’s vision, and the measures they take in solving the ever evolving technical problems presented by the beta Textblade are intuitive, calculated, and measured. Bottom line: these are VERY smart people, and they knew damn well their product was NEVER going to be released in mid 2015…they lied to us.

Via their website and press releases, they deliberately misled stakeholders into believing they had the “cure” when they very likely knew that they were far from a release date. At this point, to argue otherwise simply untenable…and yet I am disappointed by the untenable, and yet almost inexorable riposte that will result from this posting. I digress.

To those of you who feel as I feel, annoyed and oddly betrayed by this company, I encourage you; don’t give up on the Textblade, but also don’t rationalize the unethical practices of this company. They deserve your anger. Their communication has been purposefully misleading, and often mixed with childishly backhanded repartee. Hell, putting a “Rant” topic on a forum for a 2-year overdue product is insulting on a level that I struggle to put into words.

So why, then, am I posting this? Well, dabigkahuna, I do not believe you are a fool. I believe, after years of reading your postings, that you are a man who tries to see the good in others; a worthy pursuit of both the wise and the foolish. I also believe that this company deserves our ire. True, it’s only $100.00 dollars or so, and true, it’s a startup. With these, I can easily forgive Waytools two years of production delays, quality checks, and "TREG"s. What I find hard to forgive is the fact that they can not seem to swallow their pride and simply say:

“We apologize to our supporters. We have never had any idea how long this thing was going to take to finish. Under these circumstances, it was wrong of us to take your money; and just as we’re asking you to expect a better keyboard, we also want you to expect better from those who are designing it. We’re sorry we baited you with a “free gift”, and as a show of good faith, upon request we will refund your $100.00 and allow you to keep your place in the proverbial line, with the status of your free gift preserved.” The lack of Waytools ability to put out a statement of this moral caliber is why, regardless of the success this singular product, I believe they will not be around in another 3 years.