

  Kickstarter Project Canceled After Dude Spends All the Money - avty
http://www.edge-runner.com/2013/07/kickstarter-project-canceled-after-dude-spends-all-the-money/

======
nahcub
Kickstarter shouldn't be considered anything more than a donation, with the
possibility of getting something at the end. The model has flourished because
of the simplicity of it, and involving contractual agreements in the
sponsoring process would simply complicate it and scare away potential donors.
One should support Kickstarter projects because they want to see a project
flourish, and the rewards should be an afterthought.

~~~
GhotiFish
while I agree with that, I can't help but feel if you're getting public money,
your product should be public, and oh so many of them are not. Sometimes the
upshot of donating to a kicstarter project, is that the public can later buy
it. yay?

------
pallandt
This is the real, full post that edge-runner just links to:
[http://valleywag.gawker.com/kickstarter-project-canceled-
aft...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/kickstarter-project-canceled-after-dude-
spends-all-the-912176282) Also, the original link/site is 503 now, so try my
link directly instead.

~~~
wikiburner
The saying "consider the source" comes to mind. Valleywag has to be the most
disreputable "news outlet" in tech, which is truly saying something.

PG banned it for a reason.

~~~
zmitri
I understand why they are banned -- a lot of their stories are sourced from
hear say and aren't written with professional courtesy -- that being said,
they actually do publish a lot of interesting articles that others just aren't
willing publish because of their ties to the valley and partner relationships.
That guy Sam Biddle digs really hard (sometimes into the dirt) and sources a
lot of stuff others don't.

When you drill down to it, the fact that PandoDaily's investors are also
investors in a lot of the companies they report is a pretty big issue --
perhaps one that makes them disreputable? What about the fact that sometimes
articles on TechCrunch are essentially large snippets of what a founder has
just wrote to the writer in an email? There's a lot of bias in tech news, it
just depends who's side you're looking at it from.

~~~
wikiburner
I understand what you're saying, but I respectfully disagree. I can't really
speak to PandoDaily's ethics specifically, but between the dozens of media
outlets who cover the sector who are brutally duking it out for pageviews, the
idea that they are _all_ pulling punches that would earn them hundreds of
thousands of readers smacks of a conspiracy theory.

The "Truth to Power" argument I'm sure they would make really looks like the
refuge of a scoundrel when you look at the majority of their output - it's
selling sex, sleaze, snark, and cynicism. All of these are just from the last
week or so, and I think it would be tough to defend most of them:

[http://valleywag.gawker.com/google-boss-enjoys-15-mil-
manhat...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/google-boss-enjoys-15-mil-manhattan-
sex-penthouse-909299764)

[http://valleywag.gawker.com/sean-parkers-wedding-tackier-
tha...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/sean-parkers-wedding-tackier-than-we-ever-
dreamt-991606651)

[http://valleywag.gawker.com/silicon-valley-gets-4th-on-
deman...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/silicon-valley-gets-4th-on-demand-
laundry-startup-963298251)

[http://valleywag.gawker.com/the-startup-crowd-is-becoming-
an...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/the-startup-crowd-is-becoming-an-actual-
cult-926164987)

[http://valleywag.gawker.com/path-app-creator-calls-
spanish-t...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/path-app-creator-calls-spanish-
train-crash-a-message-949888571)

[http://valleywag.gawker.com/you-can-still-view-eric-
schmdits...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/you-can-still-view-eric-schmdits-
deleted-instagram-pro-923748082)

[http://valleywag.gawker.com/the-many-women-of-eric-
schmidts-...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/the-many-women-of-eric-schmidts-
instagram-913796517)

~~~
zmitri
I wasn't disagreeing with you, they do try to sell sex and publish silly
articles often, but I do think some of those are interesting and telling of an
industry that no one else really hits on.

The article about Prim for example I think makes a good point. Also note that
TechCrunch gave them a 1000 word review -- that's quite telling to me as it
sounds as though YC might have an arrangement with TechCrunch.

The personal profiles, while tacky as hell, do also show you that folks who
are all for disruption and who some look up to, are also just regular people.
I also noticed this on the Path article --
[http://bioischanged.com/user/davemorin](http://bioischanged.com/user/davemorin)
which is actually quite interesting to me.

Again, I totally get the ban, and I agree they publish filth, but I have to
say, they do cut through a lot of other valley red tape that others don't.

~~~
wikiburner
I see your point, and I don't mean to beat you up about it. I guess my only
other question is how can you trust a word they print? With the legal standard
of libel so high for public figures, and their tendency (in my opinion) to
willfully misrepresent, it just seems like a waste of time - like reading the
National Enquirer at the checkout line for updates on the whereabouts of
Bigfoot. I'd rather read a novel or catch up on Breaking Bad.

I also don't think Valleywag has a monopoly on looking critically at Silicon
Valley and startups like Prim. I've seen plenty of critical items on startups
of that nature in both blogs and mainstream tech reporting, many of them
featured prominently here on Hacker News.

The reason Valleywag has this rep as a critical eye on S.V. is because it is
_uniformly, hyperbolically negative_. Check out some of their now embarrassing
past coverage on SpaceX and Tesla. I'm guessing they don't cover them much
anymore.

Valleywag is the web-embodiment of a bitter, know-it-all drunk heckling CNN at
the bar all day.

------
weisser
Amanda Palmer got similar flack for using some of the money raised to pay off
personal debts but at least she fulfilled all of her backer's rewards.

~~~
wikiburner
Just curious, how was that revealed? Kickstarter recipients aren't required to
reveal the accounting of how they spend the proceeds, are they? Did she
voluntarily disclose to her backers that she was paying off personal debts?

~~~
molecule
yes.

> to put a number on all of that behind-the-scenes stuff which just got us to
> DAY ONE of kickstarter: $250,000.

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amandapalmer/amanda-
palm...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/amandapalmer/amanda-palmer-the-
new-record-art-book-and-tour/posts/232020)

------
japaget
Link to the Kickstarter post for the project:

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/forkingpath/the-doom-
tha...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/forkingpath/the-doom-that-came-to-
atlantic-city?ref=live)

------
smoyer
You have to admire that he plans to pay refunds over time by "getting a job".
I hope he sticks to that plan and I can guarantee that people will admire his
character when they find out what he's doing.

------
elnate
Have they considered open sourcing what they've done already?

