| Disclaimer: I’m the founder of Lectronz, a hardware marketplace based in the EU. This email leaves a lot of questions unanswered, especially regarding the long-term stewardship of the maker community. While I wish the new team at EETree LLC luck in modernizing the stack, "stabilizing the platform" after a two-week blackout is a tough starting point for earning back seller trust. For makers who are concerned about the current uncertainty or the move to a new ownership structure, I want to reiterate that there are independent alternatives. We built Lectronz specifically to provide a modern, stable home for the OSHW community with a few specific goals in mind: Data Sovereignty: We have a built-in Tindie importer. You can use it to rescue your product data, photos, and stock levels right now so you aren't "locked in" while waiting for the new team to stabilize their infrastructure. Transparent Payouts: We use Stripe for daily payouts. There are no "disbursement windows" or mystery ownership of your funds. Regulatory Focus: Being based in the EU, we’ve already solved IOSS/VAT. This allows sellers (inside and outside the EU) to keep shipping without their customers getting hit by surprise fees. Our focus is on being a lean, developer-led platform. We aren't backed by large parent corporations or shell companies—just a dedicated team and a Discord/GitHub where you can talk to us directly. If anyone needs help backing up their Tindie store data or has questions about EU shipping compliance, I'm happy to dive into the technical details here. |