KickstarterForum.org

I'm sorry to hear this. You will be in my prayers this evening my friend.

MartinT wrote:Hi,

I think I've been the victim of a bad taste prank.

The day I launched my Kickstarter http://bit.ly/arpinboard I posted in an Indie Game Developer group in facebook anouncing my launch. I explained in the post that, among other uses, this technology will enable to run augmented reality video games on virtual screens. In the kickstarter I only talk about a virtual pinboard, but I have a pending patent that, among various uses, describes an augmented reality platformer game running on these type of virtual screens.

The post was removed, probably deemed not relevant enough. That's fine.

However, a member of that group named Torin Freimiller pledged to my project at the highest reward tier (£5,000, about $8,200) on the first day of campaign. Then he asked me to be facebook friend. I accepted and send him a message thanking him for the pledge and asking him to talk more about his interest. He never replied. I was suspicious because the guy seems to be 18 years old, and unless he is rich, $8,200 seems quite a bit of money at that age. A couple of days later he changed his facebook profile photo to an image of an owl jumping on his ass, coincidence that my company logo is an owl. Now he cancelled the pledge. The campaign has been very quiet during the last week and cancelling the pledge now takes away any hope of recovery. To be honest I think this guy is a bit sadistic and the whole action seems to me like some sort of “revenge” for my post in the facebook group (I haven't had any other interaction with him).

So beware project creators, if someone doesn't like you or your project for someone reason (reasonable or not) it's really easy for them to mess with your campaign. Really sad.

Martin

I am going to be very honest with you my friend, and I hope that does not hurt your feelings. When you've got a live campaign running, why the hell would you waste any time researching someone who is playing a prank on you - and posting about it? Thats time you could have spent marketing or reaching out to journalists with. Im sorry to say this, but I don't think you are very smart...

That sucks man. Pranks and trolls can really take the wind out of your sails.

Is there a way to prevent the pranks or spot them?

This really was in bad taste though.

MartinT wrote:Hi,

I think I've been the victim of a bad taste prank.

The day I launched my Kickstarter http://bit.ly/arpinboard I posted in an Indie Game Developer group in facebook anouncing my launch. I explained in the post that, among other uses, this technology will enable to run augmented reality video games on virtual screens. In the kickstarter I only talk about a virtual pinboard, but I have a pending patent that, among various uses, describes an augmented reality platformer game running on these type of virtual screens.

The post was removed, probably deemed not relevant enough. That's fine.

However, a member of that group named Torin Freimiller pledged to my project at the highest reward tier (£5,000, about $8,200) on the first day of campaign. Then he asked me to be facebook friend. I accepted and send him a message thanking him for the pledge and asking him to talk more about his interest. He never replied. I was suspicious because the guy seems to be 18 years old, and unless he is rich, $8,200 seems quite a bit of money at that age. A couple of days later he changed his facebook profile photo to an image of an owl jumping on his ass, coincidence that my company logo is an owl. Now he cancelled the pledge. The campaign has been very quiet during the last week and cancelling the pledge now takes away any hope of recovery. To be honest I think this guy is a bit sadistic and the whole action seems to me like some sort of “revenge” for my post in the facebook group (I haven't had any other interaction with him).

So beware project creators, if someone doesn't like you or your project for someone reason (reasonable or not) it's really easy for them to mess with your campaign. Really sad.

Martin

I think you are assuming alot here. Very doubtful of this prank.

An $8,200 pledge out of nowhere would definitely raise some flags. If you see something like that, I wouldn't get my hopes up.

That's...awkward.

Actually what they do will help you to boost your campaign. They are not actually trying to scam you (some of them at least) because when they choose to fund your project, you will get featured on the popular list due to the growth made. BUT, of course, the aftermath isnt pretty if you need to deliver the product anyway (when chargeback happens)

What an awful thing for someone to do