Look at r/shutupandtakemymoney. Of the 25 posts on the first page right now, 11 are either kickstarter or indiegogo. Is it Kickstarter and Indiegogo's fault that individuals are using that form of venue to market and sell a product that doesn't exist yet? Is it reddit's? Or, is it the creator's fault for submitting the link?
I pose that it is inevitable that these sort of sites are used this way. People want to market their crowd funding opportunity to enable their company to get off the ground. It is easier to market a future product compared to a donation, so creators and marketers are going that route.
I really have no problem with people marketing future products. My problem is with the view that there is a simple transaction of "I give you money and you give me product eventually" going on, which Kickstarter (et. al.?) seem to me to either encourage or endorse through silence. I think they should instead make it explicit and obvious that there is no expectation of any prize delivery at all. They don't want to do that though, because then the absolute amount of money going in (which is what they make their money on) will be smaller. Basically these sites are profiting off of these really huge campaigns without taking on either the financial risk of the backer or the delivery risk of the project, without making it very clear (at least to the backers, and arguably to the projects) that those risks exist.
Look at r/shutupandtakemymoney. Of the 25 posts on the first page right now, 11 are either kickstarter or indiegogo. Is it Kickstarter and Indiegogo's fault that individuals are using that form of venue to market and sell a product that doesn't exist yet? Is it reddit's? Or, is it the creator's fault for submitting the link?
I pose that it is inevitable that these sort of sites are used this way. People want to market their crowd funding opportunity to enable their company to get off the ground. It is easier to market a future product compared to a donation, so creators and marketers are going that route.