KickstarterForum.org

Kickstarter has trimmed its rules for creators document, cutting it by over two-thirds from 1,000 words down to 300, and previously banned campaign types including bath and beauty projects, as well as multiple reward items for hardware projects are now allowed. Non-developers can offer app projects, too, though charities, GMOs and photo-style renderings that might mislead people into believing a graphic is a photo are still off-limits, the Verge reports.

Approvals for projects are now done algorithmically, instead of employing human moderators initially, and if they pass that process (which can take as few as five minutes) they’re free to go live. It’s a very different take on crowdfunding to the one Kickstarter initially espoused, and one that in many respects deemphasizes community and instead puts the focus on growth. It’s not quite Indiegogo’s stance of neutral network operator, but it’s much closer to that vision, and it means we should see a whole host of new projects on the site that we’d never have seen before.