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Just in case my title gets de-editorialized. I submitted this as 'Fraud: Millionaire using Kickstarter "girl controversy" to raise money.' (did have to edit ou

by jmount 14y ago

Just in case my title gets de-editorialized. I submitted this as 'Fraud: Millionaire using Kickstarter "girl controversy" to raise money.' (did have to edit out some typos on my part) The kickstarter isn't raising money for camp (as you might guess), but for single rich individual. I am all for more funding to support young girls in computing. I would just like to see it applied to those that would not receive such benefits without additional help. I am not for "shaming" in general, but I feel exposure is the only way to try to set this right. And this is ongoing, Susan Wilson has not withdrawn the Kickstarter which has collected over $22,000 to send a rich girl to summer camp.

EliRivers 14y ago
So is your problem that the money is going towards a training course, or is your problem that she could have raised the money some other way? Where is the fraud, by the way? What is she lying about? Are the people who are choosing to give their money to this being totally fooled and they think their money will be spent on something completely different?
- mnicole 14y ago
  I'd read the course was already paid for before the mom started the Kickstarter, and in their TOS it says you can't use it for "fund-my-life" and charity purposes.
  - EliRivers 14y ago
    As I read the front page, it looks like a small amount (deposit?) has been paid and 1098 dollars are left to pay. I'm going purely on information on the front page; the rest of it is comments and people's private investigations and all sorts of other stuff with, frankly, as much weight as the front page itself. I suspect a great deal of people's upset is caused by the fact that her mother could afford it. I've got no personal issue with people raising funds however they can. Other people's opinions differ, of course. I don't consider a training course necessary to create the product "fund my life", but again other people do. Presumably they'd be happy with a mountain of textbooks and some expensive hardware (although some of them complain that she intends to also buy a laptop, brilliantly on the grounds that it's a common item in their particular social environment, which presumably means that it's something they had to buy with their own money so why should she get one for free).
- jmount 14y ago
  My problem is rich people soliciting donations for their selves (under the sneaky implication they are somebody who needs this). As to Fraud from the Kickstarter: "My goal is to raise $829 to cover the cost of RPG Camp." The fraud is the implication the girl needs the money and won't get to go if we don't fund it. Or any implication this will help other girls than this one. Additional fraud is the Kickstarter is being run by a minor who can't enter into contracts, set up Amazon/Paypall accounts and so on. I guess it isn't fraud if you have enough after the fact apologists.
  - EliRivers 14y ago
    Is it still fraud if you announce it in big letters on the front page? If there is no deception involved? "My problem is rich people soliciting donations for their selves (under the sneaky implication they are somebody who needs this)." Are you by chance a citizen of a major first world country? If so, have you tried to do anything about this already? Major industries constantly take subsidies and kickbacks and all the rest of it that they don't need, with the money being funnelled to wealthy people. Have you written to your representative to ask about this? If not, maybe you could start there rather than here.
  - _delirium 14y ago
    Isn't much of Kickstarter rich people seeking donations for themselves? It's not like Peter Molyneux, a multi-millionaire, needed to get Kickstarter donations, but he did anyway. Presumably he just didn't want to spend his own money on building a game prototype. I guess I'd leave it up to the funders of a particular project whether they think giving already-rich people more money is a good use of their own money. Some kind of mandatory disclosure of existing net worth could be an interesting twist, to make sure people aren't misled about the requester's existing financial situation. But I doubt KS would go for that.
  - mikeash 14y ago
    I haven't paid a lot of attention to this, but I don't recall encountering either implication, and I do recall that the kickstarter is technically being run by the mother, who is of age. Personally, this sounds like people engaging in heavy amounts of wishful thinking and poor reading comprehension, then blaming the other guy when they find out they got it wrong.
ChuckMcM 14y ago
I think this Kickatarter says more about Susan Wilson than it does about Kickstarter.
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  Somehow I am not surprised that her day job is running a debt collection company.
rmrfrmrf 14y ago
If you had a problem with the Kickstarter, why didn't you take it up with the person who started it? Since we're all supposedly against public shaming, I only think it's right that we DDoS your employer's network until they fire you.
ricardobeat 14y ago
Why would you guess it's raising money for camp whe the title is "9 Year Old Building an RPG to Prove Her Brothers Wrong!"? I'm raising $829 to cover the cost of attending this RPG STEM Camp for kids I think it's pretty clear. They could put the extra funds towards some kind of charity though.
- FireBeyond 14y ago
  There's the TOS violations: "fund my life" - buying her daughter a laptop (camp provides IT resources" "fund tuition" - educational camp, pretty self-explanatory And then the rest of the tastelessness - I'm fairly certain a nine year old isn't at all involved in beer cozies saying "I drink like a girl, keep up!" etc.

by jmount 14y ago

EliRivers 14y ago

So is your problem that the money is going towards a training course, or is your problem that she could have raised the money some other way? Where is the fraud, by the way? What is she lying about? Are the people who are choosing to give their money to this being totally fooled and they think their money will be spent on something completely different?

mnicole 14y ago
I'd read the course was already paid for before the mom started the Kickstarter, and in their TOS it says you can't use it for "fund-my-life" and charity purposes.
- EliRivers 14y ago
  As I read the front page, it looks like a small amount (deposit?) has been paid and 1098 dollars are left to pay. I'm going purely on information on the front page; the rest of it is comments and people's private investigations and all sorts of other stuff with, frankly, as much weight as the front page itself. I suspect a great deal of people's upset is caused by the fact that her mother could afford it. I've got no personal issue with people raising funds however they can. Other people's opinions differ, of course. I don't consider a training course necessary to create the product "fund my life", but again other people do. Presumably they'd be happy with a mountain of textbooks and some expensive hardware (although some of them complain that she intends to also buy a laptop, brilliantly on the grounds that it's a common item in their particular social environment, which presumably means that it's something they had to buy with their own money so why should she get one for free).
jmount 14y ago
My problem is rich people soliciting donations for their selves (under the sneaky implication they are somebody who needs this). As to Fraud from the Kickstarter: "My goal is to raise $829 to cover the cost of RPG Camp." The fraud is the implication the girl needs the money and won't get to go if we don't fund it. Or any implication this will help other girls than this one. Additional fraud is the Kickstarter is being run by a minor who can't enter into contracts, set up Amazon/Paypall accounts and so on. I guess it isn't fraud if you have enough after the fact apologists.
- EliRivers 14y ago
  Is it still fraud if you announce it in big letters on the front page? If there is no deception involved? "My problem is rich people soliciting donations for their selves (under the sneaky implication they are somebody who needs this)." Are you by chance a citizen of a major first world country? If so, have you tried to do anything about this already? Major industries constantly take subsidies and kickbacks and all the rest of it that they don't need, with the money being funnelled to wealthy people. Have you written to your representative to ask about this? If not, maybe you could start there rather than here.
- _delirium 14y ago
  Isn't much of Kickstarter rich people seeking donations for themselves? It's not like Peter Molyneux, a multi-millionaire, needed to get Kickstarter donations, but he did anyway. Presumably he just didn't want to spend his own money on building a game prototype. I guess I'd leave it up to the funders of a particular project whether they think giving already-rich people more money is a good use of their own money. Some kind of mandatory disclosure of existing net worth could be an interesting twist, to make sure people aren't misled about the requester's existing financial situation. But I doubt KS would go for that.
- mikeash 14y ago
  I haven't paid a lot of attention to this, but I don't recall encountering either implication, and I do recall that the kickstarter is technically being run by the mother, who is of age. Personally, this sounds like people engaging in heavy amounts of wishful thinking and poor reading comprehension, then blaming the other guy when they find out they got it wrong.

ChuckMcM 14y ago

I think this Kickatarter says more about Susan Wilson than it does about Kickstarter.

georgemcbay 14y ago
Somehow I am not surprised that her day job is running a debt collection company.

rmrfrmrf 14y ago

If you had a problem with the Kickstarter, why didn't you take it up with the person who started it? Since we're all supposedly against public shaming, I only think it's right that we DDoS your employer's network until they fire you.

ricardobeat 14y ago

Why would you guess it's raising money for camp whe the title is "9 Year Old Building an RPG to Prove Her Brothers Wrong!"? I'm raising $829 to cover the cost of attending this RPG STEM Camp for kids I think it's pretty clear. They could put the extra funds towards some kind of charity though.

FireBeyond 14y ago
There's the TOS violations: "fund my life" - buying her daughter a laptop (camp provides IT resources" "fund tuition" - educational camp, pretty self-explanatory And then the rest of the tastelessness - I'm fairly certain a nine year old isn't at all involved in beer cozies saying "I drink like a girl, keep up!" etc.