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by jasonlotito
4738 days ago
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> Despite Kickstarter's protestations, hardware kickstarters have been de facto preorders. I hear this all the time, but from day one on KickStarter, it's made it clear what it was about (and this was before the Pebble KS). So, I keep hearing this, but I can't find any sympathy for the backers that complain about it. > This section is still routinely glossed over, I imagine most of it is glossed over by the backers. =) |
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I disagree heavily. There's never any honesty in this section - the thought that maybe, just maybe, this project can't be delivered at all, is never brought up.
This section is the Kickstarter equivalent of "what's your greatest weakness", where project owners do their best to downplay actual risks or not mention them at all. It's the place where you admit to your most softball, most mitigable risk and leave everything else behind the curtain.
If there were any honesty in this section at all, "none of us have manufactured anything before" would be top, in bold, in many of them.
> "but from day one on KickStarter, it's made it clear what it was about"
Who's making it clear though? It's obvious that Kickstarter themselves would rather be a funding machine than a preorder machine - but look at hardware kickstarters. Project owners routinely position their campaigns as presales or preorders, not simple crowdfunding.
The difference is more stark if you look at arts category kickstarters, where the reward tiers, as well as the language used, is much more obviously "support us and get a gift in return". Hardware kickstarters are, almost without fail, "come buy this thing".
In the hardware category at least, project owners have an opposing conflict of interest with Kickstarter.