Out of curiosity, has anyone reached out to the guys running the Kickstarter?
Yes. I and others have been talking to August since last week, before the article was published and kickstarter was launched.
I see. That's unfortunate then. I'm glad someone did reach out to them though. It seemed like throughout this entire thread we were missing the obvious potential solution, but it appears that was not the case.
It's entirely possible that they are unaware of the lists or the issues with their design.
How is it possible for anyone planning to make a Tor router without being unaware of tor mailing lists? It looks like they were able to find PORTAL from grugq, compiled, and run it. I'm sure they know tor project mailing lists, but they do not bother to subscribe to exchange ideas.
Of course, it would be possible that they are unaware, but I'm really suspicious about it. And if they are, I'm sorry to say this but it's a shame.
Not everywhere does this, but coming from a Wikimedia background, I tend to Assume Good Faith [1] wherever possible. It appears that they were aware, so in this case it wasn't warranted, but I've found that assuming good faith tends to lead to significantly fewer disputes.
I think then our best bet at this point is probably to keep complaining, do some outreach and education, and prepare for the wave of Tor users and relays that don't know what they are doing. :(
Thank you, Derric Atzrott