30 ms·

This violates kickstarter guidelines against "fund my life" campaigns (http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines).

by jbellis 14y ago

This violates kickstarter guidelines against "fund my life" campaigns (http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines). I've used the Report button to bring this to their attention. Yes, I know it's a feel-good story, but encouraging this will bring a flood of me-too campaigns. That's what guidelines are for; Mom can pay for camp the way the rest of us do.

spellboots 14y ago
This doesn't seem to apply - she is creating a game and the rewards include copies of that game. There are plenty of other games that are funded on Kickstarter. The method of producing the game (going to a camp) seems irrelevant, and clearly not what the guidelines are supposed to prevent.
EliRivers 14y ago
In this case, one could argue that she's getting money for tuition, which is against the rules, but it's part of the disallowed "fund my life", which implies that it's things that are already part of her life. Without the kickstarter, she's not going on the training course, so it's not part of her life. College student asking for money to pay university fees - that's tuition, that's "funding my life". Training course for the people producing the product, that they would not go on without the kickstarter and is essential to the production of the product at the end of the kickstarter? That's not "funding my life", that's kickstarter.
- jbellis 14y ago
  I'm pretty sure "buying a product" wasn't how it was presented when I first looked at it... in any case, it's clearly an attempt to get around the rules; nobody is seriously interested in buying a My First RPG Maker Game on its merit. Tuition is a good example; this is exactly like "pay my Full Sail tuition and I'll give you copies of the games I make there," on a smaller scale.
  - EliRivers 14y ago
    No, you're not buying a product. You're funding the creation of a product. If the kickstarter in question chooses to give people that product, that's lovely, but it's not what you're paying for. " this is exactly like "pay my Full Sail tuition and I'll give you copies of the games I make there," on a smaller scale." No, it is not. What's the product there? What product am I paying money to fund the creation of? What do I read about on the kickstarter page that the course is a necessary part of creating? No product.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - waterlesscloud 14y ago
      So you can fund literally anything. I could fund a car as long as I produced a book about buying and owning the car.
      - EliRivers 14y ago
        You cannot fund literally anything. Check the rules. "We allow creative projects in the worlds of Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater. Everything on Kickstarter must be a project. A project has a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced by it." If you're writing a book about a car that falls into the above, and you put on your kickstarter page that you need to buy the car in order to write the book, that's within the rules. Many, many, MANY kickstarters make it clear that they will be buying physical goods in order to create the product. If you want to do this, by all means go for it. I wouldn't be surprised if people decided not to fund it because they think you're trying to get a free car out of them, but purchase of goods (and services) with the kickstarter funds to help make the product is pretty much the whole point of kickstarter. In your case, I wouldn't be surprised if kickstarter themselves decided to squelch your project on the heavy suspicion that you don't really have a passion for a creating a book about the car, but that's up to them.
      - 14y ago
- EdgarVerona 14y ago
  But what if the person isn't a college student yet? Same difference, right? So what if someone in high school who wants to go to college made a similar appeal for funding of tuition? I think we're talking about two sides of the same coin. Now, if there were another site that was strictly oriented to donations or even micro-loans toward such purposes, this kind of appeal would feel right there. But as it stands, I tend to stand on the side of "this wasn't a valid kickstarter."
  - EliRivers 14y ago
    I disagree on the same grounds as before. What's the product? What piece or Art, or Lit, or Technology are they building, that can then be churned out or reprinted or duplicated etc? Send me to college to learn things? There's no product, so it's not valid. I'm making this product and I need this training course; there is a product.
norswap 14y ago
Thank you for you contribution to the betterment of humanity, internet police guy!

by jbellis 14y ago

spellboots 14y ago

This doesn't seem to apply - she is creating a game and the rewards include copies of that game. There are plenty of other games that are funded on Kickstarter. The method of producing the game (going to a camp) seems irrelevant, and clearly not what the guidelines are supposed to prevent.

EliRivers 14y ago

In this case, one could argue that she's getting money for tuition, which is against the rules, but it's part of the disallowed "fund my life", which implies that it's things that are already part of her life. Without the kickstarter, she's not going on the training course, so it's not part of her life. College student asking for money to pay university fees - that's tuition, that's "funding my life". Training course for the people producing the product, that they would not go on without the kickstarter and is essential to the production of the product at the end of the kickstarter? That's not "funding my life", that's kickstarter.

jbellis 14y ago
I'm pretty sure "buying a product" wasn't how it was presented when I first looked at it... in any case, it's clearly an attempt to get around the rules; nobody is seriously interested in buying a My First RPG Maker Game on its merit. Tuition is a good example; this is exactly like "pay my Full Sail tuition and I'll give you copies of the games I make there," on a smaller scale.
- EliRivers 14y ago
  No, you're not buying a product. You're funding the creation of a product. If the kickstarter in question chooses to give people that product, that's lovely, but it's not what you're paying for. " this is exactly like "pay my Full Sail tuition and I'll give you copies of the games I make there," on a smaller scale." No, it is not. What's the product there? What product am I paying money to fund the creation of? What do I read about on the kickstarter page that the course is a necessary part of creating? No product.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - waterlesscloud 14y ago
    So you can fund literally anything. I could fund a car as long as I produced a book about buying and owning the car.
    - EliRivers 14y ago
      You cannot fund literally anything. Check the rules. "We allow creative projects in the worlds of Art, Comics, Dance, Design, Fashion, Film, Food, Games, Music, Photography, Publishing, Technology, and Theater. Everything on Kickstarter must be a project. A project has a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced by it." If you're writing a book about a car that falls into the above, and you put on your kickstarter page that you need to buy the car in order to write the book, that's within the rules. Many, many, MANY kickstarters make it clear that they will be buying physical goods in order to create the product. If you want to do this, by all means go for it. I wouldn't be surprised if people decided not to fund it because they think you're trying to get a free car out of them, but purchase of goods (and services) with the kickstarter funds to help make the product is pretty much the whole point of kickstarter. In your case, I wouldn't be surprised if kickstarter themselves decided to squelch your project on the heavy suspicion that you don't really have a passion for a creating a book about the car, but that's up to them.
    - 14y ago
EdgarVerona 14y ago
But what if the person isn't a college student yet? Same difference, right? So what if someone in high school who wants to go to college made a similar appeal for funding of tuition? I think we're talking about two sides of the same coin. Now, if there were another site that was strictly oriented to donations or even micro-loans toward such purposes, this kind of appeal would feel right there. But as it stands, I tend to stand on the side of "this wasn't a valid kickstarter."
- EliRivers 14y ago
  I disagree on the same grounds as before. What's the product? What piece or Art, or Lit, or Technology are they building, that can then be churned out or reprinted or duplicated etc? Send me to college to learn things? There's no product, so it's not valid. I'm making this product and I need this training course; there is a product.

norswap 14y ago

Thank you for you contribution to the betterment of humanity, internet police guy!