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That's a fair point -- it'll be a problem if people get involved in Kickstarter who don't understand that there's no guarantee the project finishes. But I still
by JackC 14y ago
That's a fair point -- it'll be a problem if people get involved in Kickstarter who don't understand that there's no guarantee the project finishes. But I still disagree with your original point -- often on Kickstarter you are purchasing something for money. Conditional purchases happen all the time. For example, you could pay me $500 up front for any valuable items you find while cleaning out my grandmother's basement, and you would have purchased something -- ownership of 0 to N valuable items. Or suppose I give you $20 to bring me a pizza through a war zone, with the understanding that if you get shot you can keep the $20 and don't owe me a pizza. I've purchased a pizza -- just one I might never get to eat. (My life is tough this way.)
I know this sounds nitpicky, but it's actually important to think about if you're running a Kickstarter campaign with inherently valuable rewards. You need to bear in mind that at least some of your backers will (correctly) think of themselves as purchasing a product, just one that they realize may never be delivered. That establishes a particular kind of relationship, and you won't hit the right notes if you don't know it exists.
- scott_s 14y agoI find your responses confusing - you state that you disagree with me, then proceed to explain what certainly seemed to me like my point. I think we're just disagreeing over the meaning of the word purchase. I'm assuming that it means a non-conditioned, absolute thing, which is how I also assume most people think of it. You're including it to include conditionals, which is fine, but it's not how most people think of it.
- JackC 14y agoThis is a good summary of our confusion. :) Sorry to be a pain about it. Would you agree that I can "purchase" the contents of a suitcase on a gameshow without knowing what they are? Or that I can "purchase" next year's wheat crop from a farm without knowing how large it will be? Or I can "purchase" 100 shares of Facebook stock to be delivered in a year? I think most people would. And this is true even if it turns out that the suitcase is empty, or the wheat crop is a bust, or the stock is worthless -- it's not that I haven't purchased anything, it's that I have purchased nothing. But the point isn't really the word. The point is that if you're offering a valuable reward on Kickstarter, some backers will think of it as a plain old financial transaction, where they put some money down and they get to have one of whatever you're trying to produce if you succeed. And that's totally fine as far as Kickstarter is concerned. So if it's not how you want people to think of your Kickstarter project, you have to be careful how you position it.