[SilasX]

I thought that Kickstarter/Indiegogo had effectively become this. A common complaint is, "hey, I launched a Kickstarter, got funded, and some Chinese factory stole the idea!"

My response is always, "so? Aren't those sites more for 'I wish this existed so I could be a customer' than 'I want to personally profit from this idea'?"

So, yeah, if you don't care about someone stealing it, you might be able to repurpose Kickstarter that way:

1) Start a KS for the idea.

2) Wait for someone to steal it.

3) Cancel and refund everyone's money.

[nitwit005]

I assume there's still some friction from credit card charges and whatnot, but I do like that plan as a cheap way to get something made.

[SilasX]

I wasn't sure, so I checked their help page, and apparently, failed projects aren't charged anything:

>If a project does not reach its funding goal, no fees are collected.

https://help.kickstarter.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005028634-...

I don't know how they handle -- or if it would be an issue if you went the route of -- "Funding goal met but canceled anyway".

Or if they have rules against, "I have no idea how to make this thing but that stereotypical overseas factory says they can do it so I'm contracting it out to them."

[passivepinetree]

IIRC they don't actually run anyone's cards until the project meets the goal, so refunding isn't an issue. Perhaps someone who's funded a Kickstarter more recently than me could confirm.