When Paranoid Android – or AOSPA for those who hold the custom ROM project close to their hearts resurfaced in April 2017 after almost a year of being in hiatus, we thought and hoped they were back for good. And there was a flurry of action from the developers, putting out an Android Nougat build for the devices they supported. At around October 2017, the builds stopped being pushed out and the project dropped out of sight again. Now they are back, and asking prospective users for financial help because the funding has run dry.
According to a recent post over their Google+ account, Paranoid Android was at the brink of putting out an Oreo update, and then they ran out of funds. That means the Gerrit and the website has gone down, and server costs seem to be the big problem. In a Reddit thread, some people who look like they’re part of the AOSPA team said that basically 2 people had been footing the server costs for the past years.
Therein lies the problem, we think. And AOSPA’s track record does not help them one bit in asking for financial support. People who support them would want assurances that they will not “disappear” again like they did in the past few months. They need transparency and communication, something that the AOSPA team has not been good at over the years.
So are people going to help Paranoid Android out? That remains to be seen. Paranoid Android, in their defense, put out one of the better custom ROMs out there in terms of features and looks. But is that going to be enough for them to convince people to help them stay afloat?
SOURCE: +ParanoidAndroidCorner
