Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

There's a difference? Serious question.

Kickstarter campaigns, in theory, are to help finance a product.

Patreon is ongoing support of a creative person who, typically, will produce at least a little something on a regular basis but won't necessarily. (If the patrons don't like the pace of stuff being produced, they'll stop their monthly subscriptions.)

 

[Ryujin]

Kickstarter campaigns, in theory, are to help finance a product.

Patreon is ongoing support of a creative person who, typically, will produce at least a little something on a regular basis but won't necessarily. (If the patrons don't like the pace of stuff being produced, they'll stop their monthly subscriptions.)

Except that Kickstarter was envisioned to "kick start" a business so that it could be self-sustainable, not keep going back to the well every time they have a new product.

 

[Reynard]

Except that Kickstarter was envisioned to "kick start" a business so that it could be self-sustainable, not keep going back to the well every time they have a new product.

It has evolved into a pretty solid "preorder" system that seems to serve both the producers and consumers of projects pretty well. You can't really fault anyone for that. For RPGs at least, the market has shaped how KS works best.

 

[TiQuinn]

Except that Kickstarter was envisioned to "kick start" a business so that it could be self-sustainable, not keep going back to the well every time they have a new product.

Yeah but if you’re a business owner and you can gauge demand for a product directly each time using Kickstarter or Backerkit, and nothing prevented you from doing so, why wouldn’t you?

 

[RealAlHazred]

Just got added to an in-house test for an AI that rhymes with Schmoogle Schmemini.

So far, what it seems to be mostly good at is generating excuses why it can't do the tasks that we're told it excels at.

"Can you give me a list of these two dozen easily found people and their publicly available email addresses, all in one list?"

"That task is too difficult, because the people on that list change frequently. Can I recommend you go to the website you told me to pull from and assemble the list yourself?"

So far, AI at my parent company seems to take the form of an absurd number of "AI Newsletter" style conference calls that everyone is required to attend that consist of nothing more than cheerleaders taking up my productivity. But then, I guess, "Let's celebrate AI taking away your jobs" is hard to turn into a topic....

 

[billd91]

Except that Kickstarter was envisioned to "kick start" a business so that it could be self-sustainable, not keep going back to the well every time they have a new product.

Maybe? But it has been focused on its tagline to "help bring creative projects to life” since at least 2010. While that might mean seed money for a business to become self-sustaining, that’s likely way too ambitious a scope. I have no problem with it being a platform for a business to go project by project on.

 

[Velderan]

Yeah but if you’re a business owner and you can gauge demand for a product directly each time using Kickstarter or Backerkit, and nothing prevented you from doing so, why wouldn’t you?

It definitely has its perks for publishers shipping physical products. Unsold inventory is a killer and publishers need some way to know how many copies to print whether it be through KS or subscriptions like Paizo has.

Generally I would be curious if there’s a reason publishers that largely sell PDFs that are mostly done by the end of the KS campaign wouldn’t be better off going the patreon route like @Whizbang Dustyboots suggested. I am incredibly ignorant to the realities of publishing so I am sure there are plenty of reasons. I know I am more likely to say “sure, I’ll throw $10 at that campaign” vs. a $5 monthly patreon subscription where I don’t really know what I will get month to month.

 

[TiQuinn]

Maybe? But it has been focused on its tagline to "help bring creative projects to life” since at least 2010. While that might mean seed money for a business to become self-sustaining, that’s likely way too ambitious a scope. I have no problem with it being a platform for a business to go project by project on.

You could argue that a lot of these companies stay in business because of it. Getting capital for that first product is hard but coming out with the second product and growing can be even harder. A lot of companies fail after the first initial success.

 

[Ryujin]

Maybe? But it has been focused on its tagline to "help bring creative projects to life” since at least 2010. While that might mean seed money for a business to become self-sustaining, that’s likely way too ambitious a scope. I have no problem with it being a platform for a business to go project by project on.

We're now at a place where actual corporations are using crowdfunding for their product development. That's really not the way it was envisioned to work. I think the (in my mind) downward trend started with the "Veronica Mars" Kickstarter campaign.

 

[TiQuinn]

We're now at a place where actual corporations are using crowdfunding for their product development. That's really not the way it was envisioned to work. I think the (in my mind) downward trend started with the "Veronica Mars" Kickstarter campaign.

Ha, as a total Veronica Mars fan, I was deeply happy for any extra bit of that wonderful show I got.