5 years from now KickStarter will be known as "The Startup That Failed to Pivot". The way KickStarter wants to be used and the way the crowd is actually using

5 years from now KickStarter will be known as "The Startup That Failed to Pivot". The way KickStarter wants to be used and the way the crowd is actually using it have become 2 completely different things. It started out hosting campaigns for plays, short films, & debut albums. Now it's known for its Apple product accessories and tech gadget campaigns. But rather than change its funding structure, rules, and options to accommodate pre-sales of physical products, they've demanded less "risky product campaigns" and more easily deliverable "fun-artsy-fartsy theatre campaigns"... They're basically betraying the very campaigns that put KickStarter on the news and grew it to what it is today. Over the last few weeks we've learned that KickStarter: - isn't a store where backers can buy pre-sales. - doesn't allow "home improvement products". - doesn't allow you to offer multiple quantities of a reward to your backers. - and doesn't let you use pre-rendered images of prototypes. That's the sound of KickStarter shooting itself in the foot 4 times. Look, I get why they're doing this, they want to protect their backers from successful-but-failed campaigns. But most products FAIL, most companies fail, and the failure rate and shipping delays of projects on KickStarter is normal. I mean Jesus, people are funding, manufacturing, and shipping a product in 6 months. That's pretty incredible. Kickstarter, in their desperate attempt to please the backers, is just going to end up destroying its own ecosystem. Well the tech portion of it. If the crowd wants to play Mini-Venture-Capitalist then they're going to have to learn to deal with disappointment. Lastly, Kickstarter doesn't even promote your campaign, it just hosts it. It's up to you to promote your campaign's link. So I'm paying 5% of my funding goal to KickStarter for hosting fees. Why? With Lockitron's successful self-hosted solution we now know that we don't need KickStarter anymore. And not being needed is the first step to obsolescence.