Comments on: Kickstarter’s mission creep

By: iPledg

iPledg — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 05:28:29 +0000

At iPledg (http://ipledg.com/) we do not judge the projects submitted. We feel this is the role of “the crowd”. As long as the project meets the crtieria set out in our project guidelines (largely covering the legal and moral outlines) then we are happy for the crowd to determine the suitability for it to receive exposure and funding. And isn’t that the essence of Crowd Funding??

By: jaysonpaulino

jaysonpaulino — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 16:42:03 +0000

KickStarter is ridiculous when it comes to projects. Who are they to tell you what is good or not? I am a reddit fan, and I remember a project that got rejected by KickStarter, and the project owner when to RocketHub.com (one of the largest open platforms) and raised over $100K+. I believe in open-source, open platform. Kickstarter is closed, why the gaming community supports that is beyond me.

By: feitian

feitian — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 08:25:31 +0000

At some point when one of these gets big enough and ends in tears with no product delivered, an enterprising state attorney general is going to have some thoughts on how state consumer fraud laws apply to Kickstarter projects. http://www.cheapmonsterbeatsfr.com

By: brodezor

brodezor — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:00:20 +0000

I have the same beef with Kickstarter because they rejected my project/business. I looked around at the other “projects” and saw how they were largely people with new product ideas getting seed funding. They rejected us because they said they only do projects–which is blatantly not true. My project, to finance the development and first run of http://getbrode.com, was no less a project than any of the others. I love what they are doing, but I hate the arbitrary process and lying about their criteria.

By: realist50

realist50 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:25:28 +0000

“Stack soap”, not “Stock soap”

By: john_on_i10

john_on_i10 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:20:18 +0000

FWIW, I have no problem with soap. If it flies it is a success, if it fails it is a lesson (at small cost).

I think buyers/funders are smart enough to balance risk, look for demonstration of effort and/or at the maker’s resume.

By: john_on_i10

john_on_i10 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:16:16 +0000

My first exposure to Kickstarter was with the Backcountry Boiler (which tempts me but which I have not bought). That made it for me an inventor, tinkerer, maker, thing first. That sort of thing does not seem to me as mission creep at all. Moreover, as I’ve said, I think Kickstarter kicks all over the old inventor-networking system. Much more exposure to potential customers, much less skim.

Of course, any successful money raising network will inspire the lazy, foolish, or dishonest to join in, but that is life.

By: realist50

realist50 — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 19:06:55 +0000

I agree that the soap and iPod dock linked by Felix come across as pre-sales of products much more than funding for projects. At some point when one of these gets big enough and ends in tears with no product delivered, an enterprising state attorney general is going to have some thoughts on how state consumer fraud laws apply to Kickstarter projects – especially when there are rewards offered like “a lifetime supply of Stock soap”.

By: rossgneumann

rossgneumann — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:22:28 +0000

Could also mitigate high profile failures by forcing projects looking to raise amounts greater than $100K to submit to a review by Kickstarter before they can list. Certainly goes against the crowdsourced ethos, but could help them avoid nasty media fallout.

By: jfruh

jfruh — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:15:07 +0000

It would be interesting to hear stories about people who don’t get things from Kickstarter and try to reverse the charges with their credit card company. Who eats that chargeback — the credit card company, Amazon (who handles Kickstarter’s payments), Kickstarter?

There was a minor Internet kerfuffle a few months back about a indie game studio that was essentially trying to do Kickstarter without Kickstarter — they needed $X in pre-orders so that they would have the resources to fund game development, which they just accepted directly through PayPal. After a few days, PayPal shut down their account — freezing thousands of dollars in preorder cash — because preorders of nonexistent projects have a very high chargeback risk, and PayPal was not willing to shoulder that risk.