Crowdfunding and Culpability
We’ve talked before, you and I, about all the pitfalls that might decelerate, destroy, or otherwise damage the crowd funding movement that we all hold so dear. We’ve discussed how a high profile project failure might sink this ship, how bad publicity or a clever con man might take the winds of confidence out of its sails. We’ve even talked about how the ever increasing volume of projects might make the site ever harder to navigate. Going over any of these again would be old hat to my loyal readers.
Today, we have a new threat though – let’s call it a torpedo I didn’t see coming.
Front-running FLGS’s
Most people would argue that there are two great things about crowdfunding: free money and cool swag. While other people giving me money, and people wanting to sell me really awesome swag are both high on my list of things that are awesome, I would like to add a third item: meeting and getting to know some of the other really great members of the community.
There’s a kind of networking where everyone is trying to sell each other things – the kind you feel the need for a shower after, and then there is the kind where you actually connect with another passionate and intelligent innovator. Though I have seen some of the former on Kickstarter, the majority of my experiences have fallen into the later camp. I’ve learned a quite a bit and gotten some great advice in fact; earlier this week one of my fellow creators turned me on to an article that mirrors some of the things I have been saying about Kickstarter’s broader effects.
Want to take a read?
Double Dipping
Update: Take a look at the comments for further clarification from the creators on a variety of issues.
It takes a lot for a Kickstarter to really irritate me these days. Projects that ask for too much, that or poorly executed, or that have unrealistic goals have become pretty common; they’re worth talking about as examples of what not to do, but not worth getting worked up about. I almost got there with Star Citizen, in that they were trawling for extra cash, but it wasn’t immoral, merely disappointing.
I pledged to a project pretty late Tuesday night that crossed the line. When I first saw it before bed time, I thought it looked great – so I tossed it $20 without really thinking about it. Big mistake. The next morning while waiting at the airport on my way to Thanksgiving festivities, I stopped by to take another look. What I found made me furious.
Why not tell me if I’m over reacting?
What I’m Thankful for – A Wardenclyffe Wrap-up
As is so often the case these last few months, I’m not writing this from home, because I’m not at home. Today I am in Reno, celebrating Thanksgiving with my father, step mother, and step sister. I trust you will forgive this prewritten blog and take it in the spirit it is intended.
This year has been a great one for me, for so many reasons. From the personal to the professional there is so much to be thankful for. Rather than inundate all of you with turkey pictures, I thought I would touch on the high notes.
I’ve added some specifics below, but would love to hear from you. What is it you are thankful for this year?
I’m a Backer: Edge of the Unknown (Volume 2)
So after the last few weeks it would be a safe bet to assume that I like the following things: historical fiction, high weirdness, Lovecraft, and high contrast black and white art. It would also be a good guess that many of you like a couple of those things, because you are still here. In this week’s “I’m a Backer” column I’m going to discuss a project that really belongs on the same shelf as The Wardenclyffe Horror. Though I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Edge of the Unknown is a twin separated at birth from our own project, it is a distant cousin at a minimum.
Edge of the Unknown (Volume 2) is a great looking project, and I think its similarity’s to our recent success go a bit deeper than the art style.
Let’s take a look shall we?
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Confession Time
If you haven’t read it yet, it’s never too late to start.
Confession time. I’ve never been a huge fan of superhero comics…
It’s cool. I anticipated this reaction. Torches to the left, pitchforks to the right—let’s try to keep this lynch mob orderly, shall we?
Read below the fold if you want to hear me out.
Papers Please: Star Citizen’s Final Hours
Any Kickstarter junkie would be up so early, looking through the ending soon category for one last hit swag before it is lost forever. At least that’s what I tell myself so I can sleep at night. The mega projects though, the high dollar projects that dominate the charts for their life-cycle are a special case. They capture my attention in a way that makes it difficult to see past them to the wider ecosystem sometimes. Well, for at least a little while this phenomena is coming to an end.
Soon our favorite Nostalgia title, the rebooted grand-child of Wing Commander and Free Lancer will come to the end after doing a pretty god job of blowing away its goals. It started out bravely going for crowd funding without a crowd funding site, and later opted to run a parallel campaign on Kickstarter as well; both of these sources have paid big dividends, in the neighborhood of 3.4 million and 1.8 million dollars respectively.
Let’s dig into the specifics a bit more.
A Tangled Web – Word of Mouth and Advertising
It’s finally over, everyone, and we have crossed the finish line at 108 percent!
Of the $10,652 raised during the campaign, there is now $9,506.84, or 89% of the funds available. Kickstarter says 8-10% of the funds will be shared between them and Amazon; it turns out they only took 8.3% of the money this time around.
What about the rest? What about the last 3%? Last night 17 backer transactions failed to clear; today that number is down to 9. I expect that number will continue to decrease over the next 13 days, but regardless – it will not impact the success of the project. Based on some early estimates I expect that we will use all that, and a few hundred dollars more of our own money because of deviations caused by the ratio of foreign backers.
Want more details? Fortunately, we have some.
The Future of Caffeineforge
Its been a busy two months. Two weeks of run up and project creation, followed by five weeks of running a project and the constant search to find new venues to attract attention and advertise Wardenclyffe really takes it out of you. Add in a couple of weeks of travel for work (and travel to Reno next week for Thanksgiving) and it feels like all I ever do is spend the weekend writing blog posts so that I can stay up to date. A life spent perpetually catching up is not a life well lived.
Fortunately on my drive back from Iowa this morning, I had plenty of time for reflection. Despite the fact that it feels like I’m always running in place, I think that real forward progress is definitely being made.
Funding Faux Pas
I know what you are thinking, “Your project just squeaked by, David. What makes you think you can tell us how to run our Kickstarter?” Though The Wardenclyffe Horror was not half the phenom that many of the Kickstarter projects are, it was still successful. I credit this with modest goals, great execution, and tons and tons of research.
There are a lot of saying about advice out there, and few of them are positive. So if you’d like to stay and hear what I have learned about crowd funding, feel free. If not, well – I understand that too.
Caffeineforge 