Other sources on the developing Kickstarter story

We've had two posts this month on this blog about Kickstarter.

One by me, cautioning Kickstarter not to overreact to growing awareness of failed projects by stigmatizing failure. Then one this past weekend by Jonathan Sandlund, asking whether the newest Kickstarter policies may be over "over-optimizing for failure."

I bring my perspective as a private securities lawyer to the subject; Jonny brings his background from finance and his views as an equity crowdfunding evangelist.

The story started with Aarti Shahani's report on KQED radio in San Francisco, which morphed into a higher profile piece for NPR nationally.

In Shahani's first report, about a month ago, a Kickstarter founder reacts as though the company had never confronted the problem of a project that fails. 

Circumstantially, at least, that initial innocence was belied by two quick rounds of changes to Kickstarter's terms (the first, commented upon in my post; the second, the focus of Johnny's post).

Over the weekend, Wired ran a story about projects that have disappeared from Kickstarter, the inference being that many or most were suspended after the company received DMCA takedown notices.

As Jay Parker said in a comment here yesterday, the dialogue would be helped immensely by some data on how long it takes for successful projects - success, to date, being defined as those that meet their funding targets - to deliver on promised benefits.

How Kickstarter navigates the pressure is important outside donation-based crowdfunding, too. Both those supporting and those opposing the equity crowdfunding exemption are watching.

Photo: Stephanie Megan / Flickr.