It is interesting to read through such a collection of sour grapes.
The guy who posted the KickStarter about making potato salad had no way of knowing, ahead of time, that his project would go viral. He sought to raise ten bucks.
So, what does the potato salad campaign say about Kickstarter?
It says that KickStarter works - and that it can work in spades. It simply provides no guarantees of such.
It says that goals can be achieved - and exceeded.
It says that critical mass can be achieved.
It says that projects can go viral.
It says that momentum can perpetuate itself.
It says that people who fund projects have a sense of humor, and that sometimes (not always, but just sometimes), they will simply go along with an obvious joke. It says that the joke is NOT on KickStarter.
It says that you should focus, because KickStarter didn't fund the potato salad project. Rather, almost seven thousand individuals did.
Some projects on KickStarter raise vastly greater sums of money than $55,492. What it says is that KickStarter can be a path towards fulfillment - of either a dream or a joke.
The bulk of the KickStarter project pages that I have waded through are exercises in minimal effort. A great bulk of them demonstrate less thought than some guy who made a joke that others opted to transform into a staggering reality.
It says that there is power in numbers, and that people from all walks of life can come together to take an ordinary idea and turn it into something extraordinary.
Comedian Ron White has a comedy routine predicated upon, of all things, the concept of Tater Salad. Hell, his website's domain name is
TaterSalad.com. Thus, Zack Brown isn't the first person to capitalize upon the concept of potato salad. He's just the most recent.
I don't know of anyone who makes good potato salad using sour grapes, however.