If you ever feel like there’s no one out there that supports your dreams and deepest desires to better yourself and learn new things, things you didn’t think you could do before, you’re problem wrong. Because even a guy with the simple goal of making potato salad for the first time managed to get more than $22,000 (as of this writing to fulfill his destiny). [More]
kickstarter
State Sues Kickstarter Project That Earned $25K But Failed To Deliver
By 5.2.14
In what is believed to be the first consumer protection action taken by a state involving Kickstarter project, the attorney general for Washington state has filed suit against a company that raised $25,000 on the crowdfunding site but has allegedly failed to deliver anything to its backers or offer refunds. [More]
The Instacube: Kickstarter Success, Real-World Disaster
By 3.11.14
Do you remember, back in August of 2012, when the Instacube took Kickstarter by storm? The product is a square digital picture frame that connects to the Internet and is shaped like the Instagram logo. The product was a hit on the crowdfunding site, raising more than $600,000 and pre-selling a bunch of cubes. Which were supposed to arrive in backers’ hands in the spring of 2013. Only it didn’t. Why? [More]
Kickstarter Apologizes For Hack; Asks Users To Reset Passwords
February 17, 2014
Since it announced on Saturday evening that its user database had been hacked — giving cybercriminals access to some personal information for its users — crowdfunding website Kickstarter says it has received thousands of queries from users with questions about the incident. [More]
Kickstarter Isn’t A Store, But These People Still Want Their iPods
By 12.11.13
Earlier this year, Kickstarter made some changes to the way they deal with campaigns to fund new types of hardware. Most importantly, the product has to actually exist. But what happens when the Kickstarted project is obsolete before it even ships? [More]
Kickstarter Finally Notices Messages From Lit Motors, Removes Scam Campaign
By 9.11.13
It’s a good day at Consumerist when we’re able to save even one person from sending a dollar to scammers. Yesterday, we brought the world’s attention to a Kickstarter campaign where mystery scammers were impersonating a real electric-vehicle company. Now Kickstarter has pulled down the campaign because of the copyright “dispute.” [More]
Who’s Behind The $100,000 Lit Motors Kickstarter Campaign? Not Lit Motors
By 9.10.13 — Updated: 9.11.13
The C-1 from Lit Motors sounds like the perfect commuting vehicle: a small and zippy gyroscopic motorcycle that runs on electricity, and is enclosed and climate-controlled like a car. The first models hit the road in 2014, but you can reserve one of the first ones now, before the dealerships even open, by contributing $500 that will serve as your deposit to the C-1 Design Team’s Kickstarter campaign. Only the company says that they aren’t behind the campaign. Who is? Update: the campaign is down. Yay! [More]
Kickstarter Project Launched For ‘Freedom Of Information Act Machine’
By 7.18.13
Though the name of the Freedom Of Information Act might make it sound like one can just submit a request for government records and they will be released without hassle, in reality it’s a much more complicated process that can cost a lot of money and make even hardened investigators feel like giving up. That’s why the Center for Investigative Reporting has created the FOIA Machine. [More]
I Just Want UPS To Take My Money, Let Me Use MyChoice Premium
By 7.3.13
Some of our readers aren’t fond of UPS’s MyChoice Premium, comparing it to a protection racket for items that you’ve already paid to have delivered to your house. We get that. Michael likes the concept and finds it useful. Or he would if UPS would actually apply it to his packages. [More]
Kickstarter Pulls Controversial “Seduction Guide,” But Only After It’s Been Funded
By 6.21.13
Crowd-funding site Kickstarter is doing the apology dance today, admitting that it shouldn’t have allowed the author of a self-help “guide on getting awesome with women” to post his project on the site, as some claim the book encourages men to be overly aggressive toward women. But the apology came too late to stop the project from receiving the $16,000 in funding it managed to raise by the deadline. [More]
Using Other People’s Images To Market Your Skill As An Artist Is Probably Not A Good Idea
By 2.11.13
A couple weeks back we suggested that a bit of Google Image research can help prevent consumers from investing in a Kickstarter project that isn’t legitimate. But one project creator thought it would be okay to use results of a Google Image search to promote her ability as an artist. [More]
Why Would I Fund A “New” Kickstarter Product If I Can Find It Cheaper Elsewhere?
By 2.8.13
That headline is a big fat rhetorical. No one would (or should) pledge to back a Kickstarter product if it’s already for sale — meaning the creator may not have come up with it in the first place — and is cheaper elsewhere on the Internets. In a recent case of a project gone awry, the creator behind a “three-in-one” USB cable that can charge a mobile device, transfer data and read cards found themselves in hot water when a few of the 464 backers noticed the exact same thing on sites like Amazon.com. Kickstarter suspended the project yesterday. [More]
Do A Bit Of Research On Kickstarter Projects Before You Hand Over $100 For A $15 Watch
By 1.31.13
The projects looking for crowd-sourced funds on Kickstarter range from the absurd to the brilliant, but a few of them are just plain scams. One very questionable project is currently suspended over such concerns, but not until after it scored donations of more than $9,000. [More]
Amazon Payments Locks Me Out Of Form For Not Filling Out Form
By 1.3.13
Rey had a really great idea for a Kickstarter project. We don’t know what it is: he didn’t tell us. The world may never have the chance to know what his amazing idea was, because he didn’t even get to the point of setting up his page and posting a slick video. Instead, Amazon stood in his way. Amazon? Why Amazon? Well, you have to accept Amazon Payments to use Kickstarter. Amazon needed information that Rey had already provided long ago and was still valid. In fact, they had just sent him some money. They asked him for it again anyway, and then things got ridiculous and confusing. [More]
Kickstarter Puts The Kibosh On Crowdfunding Hardware That Doesn’t Exist Yet
By 9.28.12
We’ve written before about critics of Kickstarter who feel the crowdfunding site should do more to make sure that the proposed projects that get funded actually come to fruition. Kickstarter’s earlier stance had been to have a mostly hands-off approach, but in a new set of policies it seems the company is tightening the reins. From now on, inventors can’t use computer simulations of promised hardware or boast of “future capabilities.” [More]
If A Project Funded By Online Backers Never Takes Off, Should Everyone Get A Refund?
By 9.6.12
As is the case with many emerging Internet trends, we’re all learning as we go with online funding sites like Kickstarter. Kickstarter allows small business owners with big dreams, artists without the cash to create and other entrepreneurs to raise money by pitching to the Internet community. But what happens if the project never becomes realized — should backers get a refund or chalk it up to an unfortunate outcome? [More]
Invested In A Scam Project? That’s Not Kickstarter’s Problem
By 6.28.12
Kickstarter is a platform that lets artists and inventors go straight to consumers with their ideas, and let the marketplace decide which ones are worthy of becoming reality. Supporters pledge money, and if the project reaches its goal, the project is funded, and the creator receives the pledged money–minus Kickstarter’s 5% cut–to go off and create. But what happens when you’ve invested in a project that never comes to fruition? Jack squat, experts say. And Kickstarter’s own terms of use agree. [More]
Magic Metal Beans Keep Your Coffee Hot For Hours
By 4.28.11
I would trade a cow for these magic beans. Seriously. “Coffee Joulies” are a new invention that are stainless steel “beans” that keep your coffee at the perfect temperature for several hours. Hours. [More]
