KickstarterForum.org

[sbriggman]

Thought this was an interesting article on Kickstarter backing. Check it out here: http://venturebeat.com/2012/10/09/the-u ... r-addicts/

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What do you think?

[dylanmad]

I was a bit of an addict while I could afford it. There was a time in my life where I hadn't yet moved out away from my parents, job prospects sucked, and I felt such low self esteem. I first went on a huge Kiva kick and then really binged on Kickstarters, because I wanted to help people who actually had the wherewithal to go for it, whereas I saw myself as failing and very scared to try. I'm in a different and better place mentally today and I'm finally pursuing my dream, but on the flipside can scarcely afford to back anything anymore and just hope some of that banked Kickstarter karma comes through for me. And yet, I could be described as a do-gooder. Are the two terms mutually exclusive?

[Charles]

I was a bit of an addict while I could afford it. There was a time in my life where I hadn't yet moved out away from my parents, job prospects sucked, and I felt such low self esteem. I first went on a huge Kiva kick and then really binged on Kickstarters, because I wanted to help people who actually had the wherewithal to go for it, whereas I saw myself as failing and very scared to try. I'm in a different and better place mentally today and I'm finally pursuing my dream, but on the flipside can scarcely afford to back anything anymore and just hope some of that banked Kickstarter karma comes through for me. And yet, I could be described as a do-gooder. Are the two terms mutually exclusive?

Nope. They aren't mutually exclusive.

This is the way that I look at it. For most people, money is limited. There are other avenues that one can be useful to crowdfunding campaigns, aside from pledging. Me? I pledge in small amounts. The most that I have pledged toward a project, thus far, has been $22. Even that pledge started out as a single dollar pledge, but I utilized that project's campaign as an experiment, of sorts, to see if I could make an impact on it - and at various points during the campaign cycle, I would increase my pledge, often to nudge it past various points that I viewed to be psychological barriers.

The thing about Kickstarter backers being either do-gooders or addicts is an either/or proposition, which really amounts to little more than stereotyping. There are so many things that aren't taken into account.

For example, even just being a backer of projects can be a learning experience. There's tons of stuff that one can learn, simply from being a backer.

It's also a way to "meet" other people, or to be introduced to new ideas.

Personally, I find browsing Kickstarter to be a good form of entertainment. In fact, I enjoy browsing projects more than I enjoy watching television - not because it is addicting, but because it is interesting. There's an interactive component to it, or at least, the potential to interact, or even to participate, is there.

I back projects, at times, that I honestly feel have no hope of succeeding. Something tends to connect with me on some level, or I might just be conducting an unannounced experiment of some kind, simply because I want to see what the outcome will be.

One thing about Kickstarter projects, to me, is that, if you can grasp how to crowd fund successfully, you will have a better grasp of people, generally. You gain insight into how people think, how they act, and how they react. Granted, it's not something that grants you a monopoly upon understanding people, nor some kind of Holy Grail in human relations, but it is one way to hone one or more sub-sets of people skills.

But, then again, a million different people can have a million different reasons why they back projects. Why I do it may vary widely from why anyone else backs projects, and vice versa.

[dylanmad]

Definitely good to hear that point of view Charles, thanks for expanding on it.

[ctclements]

I'm an addict. If it interests me, I want it. I do think about helping the project, seeing people hit their goals, and try to reach out to project owners if I think something could use a little help, but in the end, I'm an addict.

I love board games. I love having stuff that other people don't have. I love being the first to have something. Kickstarter is my addiction.

[dylanmad]

I would love if there was a place where I could specifically offer my project to "Kickstarter addicts" to give them the power to get me to my goal. But I suspect this already exists in some form, and it's called Kickstarter searches for projects ending soon. I'll be there on the last week with as good a chance as anybody. And if there was any other place like that, I'm sure everyone and their brother would pounce on it and flood it with messages, which wouldn't be fun for the recipients. So things are probably for the best the way they are.

[SoftTempest]

Great reference article. Now, to answer your question, I think that most repeat backers of Kickstarter projects are simply folk with a philanthropist spirit who give to multiple causes on-, and off-line. For example, our current Kickstarter campaign at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/67 ... fairy-tale has attracted very few backers, but those few have all been repeat backers of our earlier successful campaign. I guess they felt some sense of rapport with us, or just a desire to help out somebody striving. Some have backed almost 100 projects, but on close examination, they cherry-picked what campaigns to support. Hardly the impulse of an addict. My boss at SoftStorms LLC herself has backed about 12 or 15 campaigns. Just because they appealed to her, and she felt that she wanted either to support those projects, or actually wanted the rewards offered. So, again, I think different reasons motivate serial Kickstarter backers.

[VirginiaMcClain]

It's interesting to me that the article kept referring to "Kickstarter companies." I suppose a majority of projects are companies, and even those of us who are independent artists are technically companies, but since a lot of the projects I back are independent artistic projects I don't think of them as companies.

One thing that I didn't know about until I started my own kickstarter was the fact that there are people who back hundreds of projects a year. I thought I was an active kickstarter backer because I had backed about 14 projects by the time I created my own campaign. Over the past few weeks though I've gotten backed by people who have backed over a hundred or two hundred projects. I didn't realize those people existed until now.

I have to say though, I love those people and wish there were more of them. It's really rewarding to find someone you have no connection with stumble upon your project and decide to back it. Yay for perpetual backers!

[sbriggman]

One thing that I didn't know about until I started my own kickstarter was the fact that there are people who back hundreds of projects a year.

Very true. I did this post a little while back examining whether or not there is a thriving Kickstarter community. Basically, I found that 2.6% of the community of backers backed more than 10 projects in 2013 and 26.6% of the backer community backed more than 1 project in 2013. At the 1 billion pledge mark hit in 2014, 29.64% of the overall backer community backed more than one project and 0.10% of the overall backer community backed more than 50 projects.

Right now on the stats page, the number is 29.9% of all backers have backed 2 or more projects.

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[jdbelsterling]

Agree with "dylanmad". I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. Just because your motivations may be slightly selfish (sustaining an addiction or whatever else), doesn't mean that you're not also "doing good" by supporting worthy projects. Kind of the age long debate of if you're doing something good, does its underlying motivation matter.