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The Creative Fund Launches to Back Every Project on Kickstarter

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Re: The Creative Fund Launches to Back Every Project on Kickstarter

#11

Post by mbs348 »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #8
iamryo wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're still learning, but so far we've had overwhelmingly positive feedback from folks that feel encouraged by our pledges. We're also working to raise more funds so we can increase the amount of each pledge. It's in the article, but 100% of the funds we raise on Patreon will go towards that goal.

So the goal is to pat people on the back with token amounts of money? Well, it's not my money...

As we mention in the article, a lot of it IS about the token statement, and we have thousands of KS messages at least of grateful folks supporting. Do you value your $1 supporters on Patreon? Do they have a material benefit for you?

If we figured out how to make the fund work for Patreon, how would you feel?

Re: The Creative Fund Launches to Back Every Project on Kickstarter

#12

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

mbs348 wrote: post #11
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the goal is to pat people on the back with token amounts of money? Well, it's not my money...

As we mention in the article, a lot of it IS about the token statement, and we have thousands of KS messages at least of grateful folks supporting. Do you value your $1 supporters on Patreon? Do they have a material benefit for you? If we figured out how to make the fund work for Patreon, how would you feel?

I do value my $1 supporters on Patreon - emotionally because they chose to support my work in particular rather than the mindless shotgun approach, and financially because there are 46 of them.

If this project raises enough to give $46 to every project, they'll need $92,000 by their own reckoning and will still be giving little more than a vapid pittance to each. Can you really not think of something better to do with 92 grand?

Re: The Creative Fund Launches to Back Every Project on Kickstarter

#14

Post by mbs348 »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #12
mbs348 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As we mention in the article, a lot of it IS about the token statement, and we have thousands of KS messages at least of grateful folks supporting. Do you value your $1 supporters on Patreon? Do they have a material benefit for you? If we figured out how to make the fund work for Patreon, how would you feel?

I do value my $1 supporters on Patreon - emotionally because they chose to support my work in particular rather than the mindless shotgun approach, and financially because there are 46 of them. If this project raises enough to give $46 to every project, they'll need $92,000 by their own reckoning and will still be giving little more than a vapid pittance to each. Can you really not think of something better to do wit…

*47 now

Re: The Creative Fund Launches to Back Every Project on Kickstarter

#15

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

mbs348 wrote: post #14
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do value my $1 supporters on Patreon - emotionally because they chose to support my work in particular rather than the mindless shotgun approach, and financially because there are 46 of them. If this project raises enough to give $46 to every project, they'll need $92,000 by their own reckoning and will still be giving little more than a vapid pittance to each. Can you really not think of something better to do wit…

*47 now

Haha, thanks, I guess. If you actually use and apprecitate my work, then of course I appreciate your support, but otherwise I'd rather you kept the money.

Re: The Creative Fund Launches to Back Every Project on Kickstarter

#16

Post by mbs348 »

mabynogy wrote: post #13

Some projects on Kickstarter are bad and even harmful and shouldn't be helped.

Great point. We do outline that we reserve the right not to support certain projects per our guidelines: https://thecreative.fund/participation-guidelines

Also, Kickstarter does a great job keeping the project quality to the point of staying in ultra murky territory, which we are very appreciative.

Re: The Creative Fund Launches to Back Every Project on Kickstarter

#17

Post by mbs348 »

Deimorz wrote: post #6

I'm sorry, but this idea really doesn't make any sense to me. $1 on every project doesn't make any meaningful difference--every project that would have failed without it will still fail, and every project that would have succeeded will still succeed. Your contributions have zero impact if you do it this way. If you instead looked for promising projects that would fail without your ~$2000 contribution and "save" them,…

You would be surprised at some of the messages we get. Actually heartfelt responses of folks saying that getting this first pledge pushed them over the edge to push harder. I'm excited that if we get to a point where the funds might be even $5 or $20 per project, that CAN be a material difference to lots of cool projects. Projects don't need even $1000 goals to be compelling.

Re: The Creative Fund Launches to Back Every Project on Kickstarter

#18

Post by mbs348 »

mbs348 wrote: post #14
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do value my $1 supporters on Patreon - emotionally because they chose to support my work in particular rather than the mindless shotgun approach, and financially because there are 46 of them. If this project raises enough to give $46 to every project, they'll need $92,000 by their own reckoning and will still be giving little more than a vapid pittance to each. Can you really not think of something better to do wit…

*47 now

(can't reply to your latest comment directly)

I legit shared your most recent blog post " Simple, correct, fast: in that order" to our dev #goodreads slack channel on Monday, so go figure.

Re: The Creative Fund Launches to Back Every Project on Kickstarter

#19

Post by Deimorz »

mbs348 wrote: post #17
Deimorz wrote: post #6

I'm sorry, but this idea really doesn't make any sense to me. $1 on every project doesn't make any meaningful difference--every project that would have failed without it will still fail, and every project that would have succeeded will still succeed. Your contributions have zero impact if you do it this way. If you instead looked for promising projects that would fail without your ~$2000 contribution and "save" them,…

You would be surprised at some of the messages we get. Actually heartfelt responses of folks saying that getting this first pledge pushed them over the edge to push harder. I'm excited that if we get to a point where the funds might be even $5 or $20 per project, that CAN be a material difference to lots of cool projects. Projects don't need even $1000 goals to be compelling.

I'm sure that it's encouraging to people, but in the end it's very unlikely to change any outcomes. If the project is going to succeed, someone else would have made that first pledge, and the same effect would have happened. It feels impactful from your end because you're getting involved in so many projects (and getting a lot of thank-you messages), but if all the same projects succeed and fail you haven't actually affected anything.

It's probably also worth mentioning that small pledges (especially $1 ones) are the least efficient in terms of how much of the pledge is lost to fees. A $1 pledge on Kickstarter loses 15% to fees. This is made even worse by having the money come via Patreon, where a similar chunk is lost. So if someone pledges $1/month on Patreon to you, this will end up with a project creator only receiving about 70 cents of it.

I don't mean to be too cynical, it's a great thing to do. I just think it's worth considering if this is really the best approach, or if you could change your method a bit and make more of an impact with the effort and money you're devoting to it.

Re: The Creative Fund Launches to Back Every Project on Kickstarter

#20

Post by tert45ty54wy »

iamryo wrote: post #7
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #4

I don't mean to be a downer here... but what impact does this project realistically hope to have? A dollar spread that thinly might as well be nothing.

We're still learning, but so far we've had overwhelmingly positive feedback from folks that feel encouraged by our pledges. We're also working to raise more funds so we can increase the amount of each pledge. It's in the article, but 100% of the funds we raise on Patreon will go towards that goal.

Why should you feel encouraged by receiving a dollar if anybody gets the dollar whether their project is good or not?
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