[ansible]

Yeah, I don't understand the craze with all the kickstarters.

I've backed a few here and there. Two of them I knew the principals for a while before the kickstarter began.

And I supported them at a level I considered a donation, so that if I never received anything, that's OK.

Another I backed (ReSpeaker from Seeed Studios) I did because we were interested in it for a project at work, and it was convenient for me personally to back it. And they did (eventually) deliver, which I had a reasonable assurance of because I'd bought from Seeed before.

If you want to back a game or something at a reasonable level (like $40), that's fine.

I did almost back Tilt-5, but ended up not doing so, not because of any concerns about the company, but concerns about my time that I'd have to mess around with it when I got it.

[com2kid]

> Yeah, I don't understand the craze with all the kickstarters.

It used to be they were a cool way to get access to products that were otherwise unavailable.

1. I got some amazing desserts from around the world that no way would have been able to try otherwise 2. Limited production run clothing using experimental materials 3. Stick on Cell phone microscope lens! The ones I got were before they became a common thing, and they were a small batch production run 4. Board games that are only ever sold through kickstarter.

Now days kickstarter is a lot less fun, it used to be I could go browse local projects and find a ton of local creators to support, lots of kids out of school trying to make their first video game, local board game designer wanting to release his/her dream, that sort of thing. Now days I find a lot less of those quirky fun projects, which is sad.

I never expected anything to arrive on time (software!) and it is pretty easy to spot a hardware project that is going to fail, e.g. if the amount of $ a team wants to raise to make a smartwatch is less than a single run of tooling to make a smartwatch, it is obvious the team doesn't know much about manufacturing! (Though now days outside investors are pulled in after a successful Kickstarter demonstrates interest).

I also got one of those cool track-belts before they became easily available in the US, and I got this obscenely overpowered LED light bulb that I can't actually use anywhere because it is too bright!

Still sad I never got my glow in the dark plants though, that project is what first got signed up for Kickstarter.

[TeMPOraL]

> (Though now days outside investors are pulled in after a successful Kickstarter demonstrates interest).

This was happening probably since the very beginning. Around 2013, I did independent technical evaluation of a certain hardware startup on behalf of a local accelerator, and one of the things I've learned is that the startup in question had some funding that was conditioned on the success of their Kickstarter campaign, which was meant to feel out the market.

[com2kid]

True enough, but it has become a much bigger thing now. I've even seen a couple kickstarters showing their funding split on their kickstarter project page between investors and kickstarter funds.

The level of professionality in modern kickstarters is a bit of a turn off really. Seeing massive slick ad campaigns for a kickstarter isn't exactly a sign of authenticity.

But then again if those ads have a positive ROI I totally get it.

[TeMPOraL]

I do feel the same way. I used to casually browse Kickstarter, but don't anymore.

[kelnos]

ReSpeaker was a shame, though. The v1 hardware was horrifically unstable (and then they quickly moved on to v2 and swept v1 under the rug). But, I went into it with the expectation that things might work out, so, while I was disappointed, I knew that was a possibility from the start.

[djshelleyshell]

It wasn’t a Kickstarter though.