4 ms·

I'm really interested in what percent of Kickstarter projects end up abandoned, like Diaspora just was? Are there any statistics?

by andr 14y ago

whichdan 14y ago
Kickstarter link[1] for the lazy. They raised $200k as of June 1st, 2010. [1] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-the-personally-controlled-do-it-all-distr http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-the-p...
dusing 14y ago
Well at least they stuck with it for 2 years, about as long as the money lasted.
- MichaelStubbs 14y ago
  Not exactly... http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/10/12/diaspora-asks-users-for-25-donation-to-keep-it-alive-will-you-donate/ http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/10/12/diaspora-asks-u...
- jeremyjh 14y ago
  Amazing if they actually made $200k last two years. I still can't believe people think this is a lot of money for a software project.
  - stevencorona 14y ago
    Agreed. Four founders, that's $25k/year each for 2 years.
    - PakG1 14y ago
      Was labour the only cost? There must have been other costs also.
      - jeremyjh 14y ago
        It would have been most of the cost. I believe they got free office space in an incubator. Heroku's spotlight page said they used 9 dynos, which would have been only a few hundred a month in hosting costs.
  - smacktoward 14y ago
    They didn't -- the $200K ran out a year ago: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2011/10/the-state-of-diaspora-and-fund.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2011/10/the-state-of-diasp...
shardling 14y ago
Ok, apparently you read a different article than I did? Because the implication of what I read was that the founders are still working Diaspora, but that they're preparing to make the project more community oriented. Now, that could just be their way of spinning it. Are the founders leaving to work on other jobs? I don't know much of the background here -- does it have something to do with this makr.io thing?
- sp332 14y ago
  The goal is to make this an entirely community-driven and community-run project. This part sounds like they're leaving.
- andr 14y ago
  They seem to have moved to http://makr.io http://makr.io. I think the fact the site greets you with a Facebook login button says enough about their belief in Diaspora.
  - wrekkuh 14y ago
    I agree. On the surface of things i'm completely put off, but i haven't completely lost faith in these guys. I think they should make the alternative way of signing up ("The e-mail way," as they have it on the front page) an equally sized link as the Facebook option. On the surface of things, the Diaspora team is crossing a line by sending e-mails about Makr.io to the people who were interested in Diaspora. I look at it as the two not being related at all, regardless of the reason they gave in the e-mail announcing makr to the people who expressed an interest in Diaspora - "Existing social networks do not encourage their users to feel like they have the power to MAKE things on the internet. Rather they are just “capturing” the ephemeral social actions that define social networks today. With Makr, we are making creativity accessible to everyone, in the hopes it enables people to realize that what you post and create online is worth owning." For me time will tell if this is genuine, or just the Diaspora team using their already existing mailing list to "capitalize" on an already established audience.
citricsquid 14y ago
Lots of them do and quite a few flounder in the "I'm working on it, sorry!" phase. I backed a project in early 2010 (A documentary) and the total raised was $15k, initial estimates were a few months. It's approaching 2 and a half years, the guy still updates monthly with "I'm editing this piece!" and "I did this" and sometimes he'll even include an excuse and apology! I said it last year and I'll say it again now, Kickstarter is going to feel a serious backlash the first time one of the high profile projects falls apart because Kickstarter act like this big wonderful place for nurturing these projects and a lot of people seem to believe Kickstarter has some sort of interest in helping these projects succeed, but they don't, they are nothing more than a funding platform. The problem is unavoidable I guess; give creative people lots of money, no guidance or supervision with only the moral obligation to actually do what they promised and inevitably quite a few will quit, change their idea or under deliver. A common thing I've read on reddit is people believing that either Kickstarter makes the project creators accountable for not delivering or that the project creators don't get the money until they deliver... I wonder how a lot of people would react if they realised all they're paying for is a promise. (oh and to clarify, I really do love Kickstarter and hope they continue to do what they're doing, but I can't help but disagree with their (potentially necessary) approach to projects after they've finished getting funded -- maybe they're working to solve this) --- I backed a project in May 2011 called "MemeFactory Writes A Book", billed as a book about internet culture. The idea was cute and I wanted a t-shirt so I backed it with $100. Now a year and a third later they've "changed direction" because their original idea "wasn't what they thought it would be" so here I am with $100 in a project that is never going to happen and instead I'm waiting on a new project... they also still didn't deliver my t-shirt. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rugnetta/memefactory-writes-a-book/ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rugnetta/memefactory-wri... Another project that I didn't back but I'm aware of is by a Youtube video creator called Bashurverse, the summary is: "Donate to us to go to a convention and we'll make a documentary", they got $4k and went to the convention... and apparently got the $4k scammed from them by an evil company... so now they've not delivered anything and the people that backed them are left with nothing and thinking "...oh". http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bashcraft/bashcraft-the-legend-of-minecon http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bashcraft/bashcraft-the-... Will kickstarter do anything? Nope. Do people know that? Nope, they think accountability exists. When I now back a kickstarter project it's "I guess this would be nice to have, I'll send some money and maybe I get it, if not then whatever." instead of "holy crap this is amazing, I'll stick in as much as I can I can't wait!" which is how it should be.

I'm really interested in what percent of Kickstarter projects end up abandoned, like Diaspora just was? Are there any statistics?

by andr 14y ago

I'm really interested in what percent of Kickstarter projects end up abandoned, like Diaspora just was? Are there any statistics?

whichdan 14y ago

Kickstarter link[1] for the lazy. They raised $200k as of June 1st, 2010. [1] http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-the-personally-controlled-do-it-all-distr http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/196017994/diaspora-the-p...

dusing 14y ago

Well at least they stuck with it for 2 years, about as long as the money lasted.

MichaelStubbs 14y ago
Not exactly... http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/10/12/diaspora-asks-users-for-25-donation-to-keep-it-alive-will-you-donate/ http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/10/12/diaspora-asks-u...
jeremyjh 14y ago
Amazing if they actually made $200k last two years. I still can't believe people think this is a lot of money for a software project.
- stevencorona 14y ago
  Agreed. Four founders, that's $25k/year each for 2 years.
  - PakG1 14y ago
    Was labour the only cost? There must have been other costs also.
    - jeremyjh 14y ago
      It would have been most of the cost. I believe they got free office space in an incubator. Heroku's spotlight page said they used 9 dynos, which would have been only a few hundred a month in hosting costs.
- smacktoward 14y ago
  They didn't -- the $200K ran out a year ago: http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2011/10/the-state-of-diaspora-and-fund.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2011/10/the-state-of-diasp...

shardling 14y ago

Ok, apparently you read a different article than I did? Because the implication of what I read was that the founders are still working Diaspora, but that they're preparing to make the project more community oriented. Now, that could just be their way of spinning it. Are the founders leaving to work on other jobs? I don't know much of the background here -- does it have something to do with this makr.io thing?

sp332 14y ago
The goal is to make this an entirely community-driven and community-run project. This part sounds like they're leaving.
andr 14y ago
They seem to have moved to http://makr.io http://makr.io. I think the fact the site greets you with a Facebook login button says enough about their belief in Diaspora.
- wrekkuh 14y ago
  I agree. On the surface of things i'm completely put off, but i haven't completely lost faith in these guys. I think they should make the alternative way of signing up ("The e-mail way," as they have it on the front page) an equally sized link as the Facebook option. On the surface of things, the Diaspora team is crossing a line by sending e-mails about Makr.io to the people who were interested in Diaspora. I look at it as the two not being related at all, regardless of the reason they gave in the e-mail announcing makr to the people who expressed an interest in Diaspora - "Existing social networks do not encourage their users to feel like they have the power to MAKE things on the internet. Rather they are just “capturing” the ephemeral social actions that define social networks today. With Makr, we are making creativity accessible to everyone, in the hopes it enables people to realize that what you post and create online is worth owning." For me time will tell if this is genuine, or just the Diaspora team using their already existing mailing list to "capitalize" on an already established audience.

citricsquid 14y ago

Lots of them do and quite a few flounder in the "I'm working on it, sorry!" phase. I backed a project in early 2010 (A documentary) and the total raised was $15k, initial estimates were a few months. It's approaching 2 and a half years, the guy still updates monthly with "I'm editing this piece!" and "I did this" and sometimes he'll even include an excuse and apology! I said it last year and I'll say it again now, Kickstarter is going to feel a serious backlash the first time one of the high profile projects falls apart because Kickstarter act like this big wonderful place for nurturing these projects and a lot of people seem to believe Kickstarter has some sort of interest in helping these projects succeed, but they don't, they are nothing more than a funding platform. The problem is unavoidable I guess; give creative people lots of money, no guidance or supervision with only the moral obligation to actually do what they promised and inevitably quite a few will quit, change their idea or under deliver. A common thing I've read on reddit is people believing that either Kickstarter makes the project creators accountable for not delivering or that the project creators don't get the money until they deliver... I wonder how a lot of people would react if they realised all they're paying for is a promise. (oh and to clarify, I really do love Kickstarter and hope they continue to do what they're doing, but I can't help but disagree with their (potentially necessary) approach to projects after they've finished getting funded -- maybe they're working to solve this) --- I backed a project in May 2011 called "MemeFactory Writes A Book", billed as a book about internet culture. The idea was cute and I wanted a t-shirt so I backed it with $100. Now a year and a third later they've "changed direction" because their original idea "wasn't what they thought it would be" so here I am with $100 in a project that is never going to happen and instead I'm waiting on a new project... they also still didn't deliver my t-shirt. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rugnetta/memefactory-writes-a-book/ http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rugnetta/memefactory-wri... Another project that I didn't back but I'm aware of is by a Youtube video creator called Bashurverse, the summary is: "Donate to us to go to a convention and we'll make a documentary", they got $4k and went to the convention... and apparently got the $4k scammed from them by an evil company... so now they've not delivered anything and the people that backed them are left with nothing and thinking "...oh". http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bashcraft/bashcraft-the-legend-of-minecon http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bashcraft/bashcraft-the-... Will kickstarter do anything? Nope. Do people know that? Nope, they think accountability exists. When I now back a kickstarter project it's "I guess this would be nice to have, I'll send some money and maybe I get it, if not then whatever." instead of "holy crap this is amazing, I'll stick in as much as I can I can't wait!" which is how it should be.