The one thing that Kickstarter has taught me is something I don't really want to accept, but it's the sad truth: most project creators don't see Kickstarter as a real commitment to business, it's a way to get money for their "neat project" that they want to complete but without the hassle of raising money properly or selling pre-orders. It's a complete non-commitment and it seems a substantial number (enough for me to notice) take it this way.
Kickstarter really need to fix this side of the site, I won't be backing any projects from this point on unless they absolutely have a pre-created product and I'm happy with what I can see at the time of backing, putting money into "creative" projects or "prototypes" seems to be a guaranteed way to come away with something you didn't expect (if you get anything at all). I would love to see either some retribution for people that never deliver or project curation from Kickstarter.
On a positive note I backed "Romo" (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peterseid/romo-the-smart...) a couple of months back and had an absolutely wonderful experience, they delivered on all their promises (so far) and the project is everything they promised.
most project creators don't see Kickstarter as a real commitment to business, it's a way to get money for their "neat project" that they want to complete but without the hassle of raising money properly or selling pre-orders.
But that's true, of course. Kickstarter isn't a marketplace like e.g. Etsy where customers buy items. Kickstarter lets people fund cool projects they like. Often (but not always) the item istelf is offered as a "perk" for backers. But that's not really the point of Kickstarer, it's just about funding a project.
This is what I'm talking about, if I choose to fund a project and the reward I choose is that project, isn't that the point of funding? For example, http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petertreadway/spnkix-wea... is a project being funded at the moment and will reach it's goal, I've backed with $500 so I can get a pair, if they don't deliver on that isn't that an issue? Kickstarter does not present it as a chance to maybe see a project and if not, well great free money for the project creator, it's presented as a way to fund a project to creation, to delivery.
They haven't even been shot yet. Heck when I pledged, the guy hadn't even bought the cameras to do the shooting yet. There's no gurantee about the content of the films. Sure, I'll get a copy, eventually, but that's not really why I pledged. I pledged to fund the making of these films.
Man, I wish you didn't mention that project. I would have been very happy spending that money on something else instead, but now that I've seen it, there is no option. :)
Maybe one way to solve this problem is to define several milestones, and a percentage of the funds get released once milestones are reached. At each milestone, each funder can decide whether or not the person has achieved their stated goal for the milestone.
If the person who puts money into the project gets cold feet, they can back out at any time, but any money they have committed up to the current milestone goes to the founders and the rest gets returned.
Problem is that oftentimes most of the money is needed before a first prototype. And many concerns wont emerge until the prototype comes out. So effectively what will happen is that the milestone system will be gamed so that most of them are "paper" or "cad" which dont take much effort.
well, with these projects that are vastly overfunded, like the case example, it seems like most of the money could have been safely put in some sort of escrow so that the founders wouldn't get lazy.
And if there's a proper description of the milestones, it seems like gaming might not be so easy.
For example, if there were a "test the metal case for signal loss" milestone, and if the founders only gave a half-hearted attempt, then a bunch of people could have had the option to pull out at that point.
Basically the founders need to create a proper plan, with reasonable milestones, and then the funders might be more willing to give more money. I think after a while, people would be able to flag a gamed milestone.
You can't necessarily fault the founders for not thinking through all of the potential pitfalls. A proper plan will not cover all of these details. Take the apple death grip issue -- they had a plan, it was produced, and the issue was really only emphasized after it was produced and sold to customers.
Kickstarter really need to fix this side of the site, I won't be backing any projects from this point on unless they absolutely have a pre-created product and I'm happy with what I can see at the time of backing, putting money into "creative" projects or "prototypes" seems to be a guaranteed way to come away with something you didn't expect (if you get anything at all). I would love to see either some retribution for people that never deliver or project curation from Kickstarter.
On a positive note I backed "Romo" (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peterseid/romo-the-smart...) a couple of months back and had an absolutely wonderful experience, they delivered on all their promises (so far) and the project is everything they promised.