Ars Technica:
By this point, fairy-tales about successful funding and horror stories of projects that end in abject failure or corruption have led most of us to recognize the volatility of any Kickstarter project. But lost between these two extremes is a long, sometimes confusing road that is invisible, and sometimes even inaccessible, to the mildly interested passersby. In today’s Kickstarter Web storefronts, projects appear so singular to their backers that any unplanned activity can seem more erratic and suspicious than it actually is. In most cases, though, delays are normal.
This underreported grey area between funded and shipped (or sailed) isn’t necessarily something to loathe. Rather, it highlights many of the reasons crowdfunding is worth protecting—even if some of the practice’s worst contradictory forces are at play.
I’ve backed several Kickstarter projects over the last few years and have been universally disappointed for various reasons, not the least of which is failure to ship. I won’t be doing any more.
I have been burned and delighted by kickstarters, you gotta be a smart ‘supporter’.
Kenny Loggins can still meet his deadline if he ships his new album in July!
There is generally quite a bit of naiveté in estimating how hard it is to bring a real product to market. Promising a shipping date before having an engineering team assembled is a sure-fire way to disappoint customers and burn out engineers.
Every project I have backed has been completed successfully. Only one was delayed, a documentary, and it is the better for the delay.
Every single one of the Kickstarters I’ve backed since I got the original Glyph back in 2010 has been successful and delivered the promised product. Art books and music albums, mostly. But all from people I already followed and knew of their track record.
I generally try to only fund projects that are by people I know, or friends of people I know.