I know this article is explicitly from a creator's perspective, but as most people reading it will be backers, I wanted to chime in. Specifically, it seemed to

I know this article is explicitly from a creator's perspective, but as most people reading it will be backers, I wanted to chime in. Specifically, it seemed to me that many of the features that made IGG appealing to the author are things that are undesirable to backers. Pervasive, cross-site ad tracking? Hidden product tiers and partitioning of backers? It seems to me that IGG is trying to merge crowdfunding with ecommerce, where such tactics are obviously de rigueur. From my perspective, however, the original point of crowdfunding platforms was to provide a place that good ideas without funding could have a second chance to see the light. In my mind, this makes crowdfunding perfect for things that target niche markets, or are very "out there", or want to explore ideas that generally would be difficult to pitch to the mass market. Instead, what it seems to be evolving into, and what it should not be (in my opinion), is a place for companies to soft-launch their latest DNVB idea. In that sense, the choices that Kickstarter is making is to maintain the platform in a similar form to its original incarnation, which at least gives projects the chance to stand out for their ideas rather than their marketing. Marketing wins practically everywhere else already! For projects which are outstanding in their area, but truly too niche to gain sufficient traction to meet their funding goals... I'm not sure what the solution is there. Another, different approach is that taken by Massdrop, which seems to have embraced the niche appeal of crowdfunding rather than trying to move the needle back to web sales. Of course, it does provide a sales channel, but not in a way that encourages the peddling of schlock through one-and-done, ad-driven campaigns. I'd be interested to read a similar write-up on their backend support for creators, to get a better insight into their thought process and business model. Finally, I sincerely appreciate the author taking the time to write up their experiences and share them. Even if their goals and my (naïve) preferences are not perfectly aligned, we wouldn't be able to talk about it without this article to spur discussion.