The Worst Part of Kickstarter
Those who read my posts regularly will hear me extol the virtues of crowdfunding and Kickstarter in particular at length. Though there are a lot of great things to talk about – I haven’t run out by any means – that’s not what today’s post is about. Today we are going to talk about the worst part of Kickstarter, and the dark side of crowdfunding. We’re going to discuss how the scourge of the internet follows us even to niche of creative brilliance.
I’m talking of course about spam. If you feel my pain – then read on. If you are too new to Kickstarter to see this – consider yourself warned.
(Fund The Wardenclyffe Horror!)
There are a lot of ways that Kickstarter can fill your inbox. You can actually opt out of most of them, but that would probably be a bad idea, as most of these notifications are things you want to hear about. Who doesn’t want to know when a project they are passionate about needs their help, or rewards are about to ship? Who doesn’t want to know when a project they asked to be reminded about is close to slipping through their fingers?
This is the short list of things that will make Kickstarter update you:
- When you back a project.
- When a project funds (or fails to fund).
- When a creator sends you an update during the funding process.
- When a creator sends an update after the project has been funded.
- When a creator sends you a survey with information for your swag.
- When you get a message from anyone on Kickstarter.
If you only fund one or two projects, then these are spread out far enough for the effect to be negligible I would say that the average project sends out close to 20 email causing events over its lifetime, though I have seen some come close to doubling that (22 project updates alone, not counting anything else.)
Of course I understand why each project does this. Each one has a sense of urgency, to compete and rally its fans onwards to new funding heights. As someone who is currently running a project (which comes with its own new pile of Kickstarter email alerts, I assure you) I can tell you that those feelings exist. In a social Darwinist sense, this is the right thing to do, but as a good neighbor it is wise to limit your enthusiasm to once every few days or once a week.
Currently I back 46 projects, and receive 8-12 emails from Kickstarter every day, above and beyond any that are related to Wardenclyffe. I think this might be too many, though I confess I have no ideas on how to reduce them beyond personal choice as most of them contain information I want.
Does anyone else have similar issues? How many emails does Kickstarter send you every day?
Caffeineforge 
As if you read email.. Pshaw, I say… pshaw!
I assure you – I am an email reading machine!