Introduce Yo’self
I’m Chris, the other half of this little enterprise. I thought I’d give readers an idea of what to expect from my posts as the site develops.
Aside from talking up our own projects (like the Wardenclyffe Horror, coming soon to a Kickstarter near you…), I intend to fly my geek flag proudly. You can look forward to posts on all things nerdish. Books, movies, television, comics, and gaming are all on the table. Together, we’ll explore fandom and geek culture. We’ll praise the things we love and damn the things that disappoint. Most importantly of all, I hope we’ll have meaningful conversations about the cool stuff that makes us passionate (and isn’t that being a fan is all about?).
None of this can happen without you, the readers, so why not take a moment to give us a shout out and tell us a bit about yourself?
Ripple Effects: Unintended Consequences
As this picture from New Scientist wonderfully illustrates, everything is interconnected. Today I thought I would share my thoughts on how Kickstarter interacts with the world around it, and its impact on both the digital and commercial ecosystems.
Failure: A Crucible
56% of all Kickstarter campaigns and between 90% and 66% (good numbers are much harder to find) of all Indiegogo projects have at least one thing in common. Despite this being a majority trait, you wouldn’t want to emulate them; these projects end in failure. This is a sobering statistic, and as I showed you yesterday, there is no one common cause. Not all of these projects lacked quality, or advertising. Not all of them had unrealistic goals, or poor execution.
Each of them though failed to do enough right to accomplish their goals. Picking through the long list of projects on either site, you can see that many projects lacked polish or quality either in their pitch or their product, but more vexingly, many of them looked like they should have succeeded. I confess that I am sometimes puzzled when I find what looks like a very well put together project, that seemed like it has everything going for it stuck forever at 60%.
Projects by the Numbers: Five Lessons from the Data
As I have said previously, I plan to start my own Kickstarter comic project in the near future. To this end I have spent a great deal of time studying a variety of subjects. In particular I have spent a great deal of time trying to understand what sets a successful Kickstarter apart from an unsuccessful one.
A lot of research has been done as to what goes in to a successful crowd funding project. As in all things, there is a limitless demand for free money (or money that is perceived as free.) With the pool of Kickstarter projects growing so deeply in the last few years, and their data being so available, a number of interesting observations have been made, both from Kickstarter itself and a variety of other sources:
Modern Literary Classics
Those of you who know me, are already aware of this, but for those readers that I have not had the privilege of meeting in person – I love comic books. When I was 12, a cousin who was staying with us at the time introduced me to comic books. Specifically I started off reading Uncanny X-Men’s X-Tinction Agenda.
I loved it from the start; I was hooked.
Over the next few years, the majority of my allowance went to comics – almost exclusively Marvel comics. Later when Image arrived on scene, they also took their fair share of my money. For whatever reason I didn’t get into DC comics until much later. In my twenties I kept reading and buying certain Marvel X-titles, but spent most of my time reading graphic novels from DC’s Vertigo imprint. My favorites included: The Invisibles, Sandman, Hellblazer, and Transmetropolitan.
Wouldn’t the World be Better if…
Yesterday I talked about the projects that drew me to crowd funding, the somewhat-immediate gratification of people willing to give me exactly what I want was certainly nice. On the other side of the equation, though – there are projects that are awesome in their own right. Projects where the rewards for a backer aren’t anything I am particularly interested in, but the idea of it existing at all as fabulous, and worthwhile. Currently I am giving various amounts of money to people that want to:
- Perform research that will lead to a space elevator (pictured above.)
- Commercialize sensors that will make the every day objects in life smarter.
- Build an urban farm/revolutionize the supply chain.
- And bring the smart phones of the world one step closer to the tricorders we know they should be.
Are there any projects out there that excite you? Anything that sets your imagination ablaze?
The Appeal of Crowd Funding
Have you ever contributed to an Indie GoGo Project, or become a back of a Kickstarter? I have.
In my mind, the kind of projects I contribute to fall into two camps: things I want, and am willing to pay for (a preorder if you will) and things that I just think are too cool not to exist. The first category is the kind of project that introduced me to crowd funding; the second type, however, I think is the really interesting part.
“Let’s Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum!”
A very pertinent, and successful example of a crowd funded project going on right now is the Tesla Museum project being lead by The Oatmeal on Indiegogo. As of today, the project has raised more than 1.1 million, against a target of 850 thousand, with a little more than a month to go.
Obviously I find the success of the subject matter more than a little heartening; not only does the world need another Tesla Museum, but I think the enthusiasm bodes well for the project. Last year the Mark Twain autobiography was a big news story, and this year it’s the Tesla museum. If we don’t hurry up and print this thing, who knows what other details of the plot could become common knowledge.
Kickstarter Pitfalls
Today I ran across an article on the dark side of Kickstarter projects, which detailed examples of stalking, threats, and bribery. Though Barry Goldwater said “extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice,” I think that it very much is in crowd funding.
For our part, the advertising in Caffeineforge’s upcoming Kickstarter for our comic will be much more civil and subdued. We hope to spend some money on banner ads at niche sites, and send out letters to a few citizen journalists who might be interested in our project. Spamming, threatening, or bribing anyone is nowhere on our to-do list, though.
Recharged and Ready
I’m back from my vacation, and eager to refocus on the Wardenclyffe Kickstarter. The preview project on the Kickstarter website is starting to come together, and I should have the preview link posted before the end of the week.
In other Kickstarter news, was anyone else eagerly watching the Reaper minis project as it sky rocketed near the end? I was pretty excited by it, both because of the speed it was increasing at by the end (with a final tally of 3.4 million dollars!) and also because I was a backer; did you see how amazing the final reveal was? A colossal scale Cthulhu is pretty awesome as far as finales go; definitely a hard act to follow.
Caffeineforge 