Kickstarter, can it be abused?

[Deleted]

I'm not all too familiar with kickstarter, but from the looks of it: when the plea is in the pocket, it's in the pocket and there's jackshit u can do about it. So what stops someone from creating an awesome kickstarter idea, raise 200k and skip town with the plea'd money? (aside from moral thought)

[Deleted]

People have scammed on it many times, Caveat Emptor.

[Aldred]

Read the wikipedia entry on it for starters, the Model section explains a bit about how it works:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickstarter#Model

So if you quite literally just took the money and ran, you'd likely be persued leagally by the backers. A better idea would be to make a pretty shoddy job of things, hand out all the contracts to your friends, pay yourself a huge wage, and then spend whatever is left to come up with a product that more-or-less does what you said it would.

There definitely is risk involved for the backers though, sure.

I actually thought - from the thread title - you might mean people using Kickstarter who really shouldn't be.

[chazus]

A few things.

The money isn't actually collected until you reach the goal. If the goal isn't reached, they get no money. A smart scammer would set a low goal. But they would also have to provide decent material to at least make it seem like a good product. People will only back something that 1) Looks GOOD, and 2) Looks like it can actually happen. I can make something that could be amazing any day of the week. That thing being viable and accomplishable.. a different story.

Smart Kickstarters often have a good portion of it completed, so they have something to show. I myself will be doing a kickstarter soon for my studio's game... But not only is a good, playable portion of the game complete, but we also already have a game available on iOS/Android... So the chance of being a scam is low.

As Rich said.. Caveat Emptor. There have been some truly convincing scams on kickstarter. Games that looked nearly complete, etc. The bottom line is.. before you pitch in.. Do a little research. Who are these people? Do they have history? Is it some random people who have not done anything before?

Scams happen, but 99% of them can be avoided with a little diligence.

Unfortunately, that's also part of the thing of kickstarter... Much of the money comes from TONS of $1 to $5 posts.. and most people could really care less about $5. If they get scammed... eh. But if they get scammed, that is still thousands, or tens of thousands to the collector. Not only that, but there IS legal backing.. to an extent. It's the internet.. so good luck 'finding' the people if they planned to scam from the start.

Just be smart about it. There have been enough scams now that most people are wary enough on Kickstarter and similar crowdfunding to have some common sense about it.

[Deleted]

Shut up and take my money.... Welcome to kickstarter!

[Khime]

Here's a great example of Kickstarter being abused: A webcomic author who decided to punish his backers for supporting capitalism by burning the books their pledges went to help create.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=51375

[Daws001]

I was close to supporting one before but backed out of it because of uncertainty (also poorness).

The real danger with Kickstarter, however, is someone putting up a joke deathray.
People flock to it in support because it's funny, it's cool, and because geeks.
The Kickstarterer reaches the goal...turns out it was a real deathray.
Thanks a lot, Kickstarter.
Earth is dead now.

[Deleted]

Kickstarter can be a platform for fraud, and has been widely criticised, with many people losing money on it.

You have to remember when you back something on kickstarter that you are not buying a product, you are financing a project and projects can fail and projects can be run by people who are not being honest. If you had any evidence that the person had never intended to do what he had promised, you could pursue on the grounds of fraudulent behaviour, but it's easy enough for people to mock up some attempt at a project that makes it look like they tried.

Kickstarter embodies both awesome things and appalling things and people should definitely be putting in a LOT of research before using it.

[Aldred]

Here's a great example of Kickstarter being abused: A webcomic author who decided to punish his backers for supporting capitalism by burning the books their pledges went to help create.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=51375

Damn! I really don't know where to start with that guy. What a child.

[The One Percent]

Here's a great example of Kickstarter being abused: A webcomic author who decided to punish his backers for supporting capitalism by burning the books their pledges went to help create.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?p...ticle&id=51375

Man, I hate it when I don't fulfill a promise I make and people get pissed. HOW FUCKING DARE THEY.

[Deleted]

The way the Kickstarter works means that you are in essence, a donor, not an investor that means they aren't legally obliged to give you shit.

[Sam the Wiser]

I've only backed Ava's Demon. I was happy with the results.

[Laysson]

Look at Occulus Rift.

[Xargoth6634]

Yeah, I've looked at backing a lot of kickstarters and I'd like to support indie projects, but at the end of the day it's just not worth the risk to me. There's really not much legal recourse if you get screwed over, and I'd rather just wait and buy the game on Steam.

Look at Occulus Rift.

Well, I'm not sure of the specifics, but if the people that supported the kickstarter are getting a copy of the final product, and Facebook's cash infusion is going to make the final product better, isn't that logically a good thing for the backers?