I've also backed a bunch of Kickstarter projects, so far none that have taken my money then failed, but two very ambitious and relatively expensive ones which have my money are running well behind schedule (The Pebble Watch and the ZPM Espresso Machine). I don't regret a cent of that money, and if both/either of the watch or the coffee machine never turn up, I'll be sad - but sad because a great project failed, not sad because I feel any overpowering entitlement to "get my thing". I view all of my Kickstarter pledges as "gifts to people with great ideas" with the understanding that if they can trun the idea into a product/business, they'll send me one.
I see _many_ complaints from people who don't view Kickstarter that way, and in one sense I feel sorry for them, because I think it's at least partly Kickstarter's fault and partly some project's fault. The recent changes to KS's hardware policy were clearly aimed at people who thought they were buying products in a shop. I think Kickstarter, and the people starting projects on Kickstarter, need to make things much more clear that it's not an "online shop" - because in spite of words/phrases like "funding platform for creative projects", "funders", "pledges", "projects", and "creators"; I see lots of people, including smart people who I respect, complaining that their "purchase" at Kickstarter isn't turning out as they expected. I think those peoples expectations were wrong, but they still had those expectations, and were still upset when they weren't met.
People need to understand there _are_ places where you can buy products online and have them shipped to you within reasonable pre-agreed timeframes. They're called "online stores", there's _heaps_ of them out there - try amazon.com for example, or ebay.com. Kickstarter is _not_ one of those. Kickstarter, and Kickstarter project creators probably need to do a better job of making sure people understand that before taking their money off them.
I see _many_ complaints from people who don't view Kickstarter that way, and in one sense I feel sorry for them, because I think it's at least partly Kickstarter's fault and partly some project's fault. The recent changes to KS's hardware policy were clearly aimed at people who thought they were buying products in a shop. I think Kickstarter, and the people starting projects on Kickstarter, need to make things much more clear that it's not an "online shop" - because in spite of words/phrases like "funding platform for creative projects", "funders", "pledges", "projects", and "creators"; I see lots of people, including smart people who I respect, complaining that their "purchase" at Kickstarter isn't turning out as they expected. I think those peoples expectations were wrong, but they still had those expectations, and were still upset when they weren't met.
People need to understand there _are_ places where you can buy products online and have them shipped to you within reasonable pre-agreed timeframes. They're called "online stores", there's _heaps_ of them out there - try amazon.com for example, or ebay.com. Kickstarter is _not_ one of those. Kickstarter, and Kickstarter project creators probably need to do a better job of making sure people understand that before taking their money off them.