Last minute angels ---

[mdtommyd]

Warka Water v2 - just funded.
I'm glad because I believe and backed, but noticed from their KickTraq graph that they got 11K a couple days ago on 12 new backers.

This isn't the first project I've seen recently where a big backing happens relatively late in the proceedings, from a small number of backers to get them over the hump.

Is this legit? Is it smart? Something just seems amiss.

[TashaTurner]

I'm not seeing any of the big $$$ pledges taken so that $11k is likely outside funding which was put in at "no reward". Possibly due to the Warka they just finished building for field test?

[mdtommyd]

You're probably right. Just wish they were a little more up front about things like that. Feel a little sandbagged when something like this happens.

[TashaTurner]

A couple other projects I've seen this happen with I don't have such charitable thoughts about. It's only because this project is 2nd time around and the pilot unit went up just around the time as the pledges.

A charitable cookbook had 50% funding for 2/3rds the project. Last few hours they were funded by 2-3 people - no rewards - ~$2.5k. Really poorly run project. They kept assuring me it would be funded with nothing happening for weeks. Very suspicious.

Jada spices ended up funded in the end. Again no reward 2-3 backers for about $3k. Super suspicious given everything else about project and lack of real answers to questions asked for details in what they needed money for since they already sell to Amazon.

[Rhonda T]

I have seen KickStarter step in mid-project once when something wonky was going on with a project's finances and the funding was reduced by about 50% mid-campaign. Project didn't end up funding.

There was another project with lots of suspiciousness the last couple days. I reported to KS and never heard anything. They got their $ but haven't fulfilled rewards yet, 3-4 months late so far and extremely low communication.

Hard to tell what makes KS take action.

[TashaTurner]

I've certainly been using the report project button more - both for issues with projects & for individual commenters who I think should be removed/comments deleted. Took me 4 years to learn how to report and in the 4 months since I learned I've used it 3-4 times now. So far they've taken action on the comments but not the projects. Go figure.

[mdtommyd]

I reported a project once early on. Got what I thought was a nice runaround from KS, obvious they weren't going to do anything. Comments I just tend to ignore. Haven't experienced one yet that I felt rose to the level. YMMV.

It the opacity that goes on when trying to understand/figure these things out that really gets my goat. Some day, I'm just going to decide it's not worth the effort and take my interests elsewhere.

[numbat1]

I have seen one or two campaigns who were counting funding gathered outside Kickstarter and so may add that to the final pledge amount in the last days. I can not remember which one actually made it clear and would report progress of their other funds and what actual % toward goal was with those included. They included the information in updates however it was not clear from their main page.

I wonder if other campaigns have something similar going on. I also know of one or two who had generous backers waiting to the last moment to take them over, or relative willing to step in and help out but not wanting to do so early.

Others have definitely looked suspicious.

[ktrieu]

As far as I know, this kind of behavior (assuming it's by some party close to the creators or the creators themselves) will end up hurting the creators at some point because of all the fees. If the amount that was legitimately funded was low enough, they could actually end up losing money.

Sure, an unsuccessful project may not look good, but it's certainly better for your reputation in the long run than losing enough money through fees that the rewards can't actually be fulfilled. Of course, I'm assuming no fees are collected on unsuccessful or canceled projects since no money is collected in these cases.

On the other hand, I have noticed that the general tendency is for funding to pick up in the last few hours of the campaign. Usually the highest rates of funding are at the very beginning as the Early Bird rewards get snatched up and also right at the last minute. I have no doubt that this is usually legitimate, since it also happens to overfunded campaigns.

[TashaTurner]

I have seen one or two campaigns who were counting funding gathered outside Kickstarter and so may add that to the final pledge amount in the last days. I can not remember which one actually made it clear and would report progress of their other funds and what actual % toward goal was with those included. They included the information in updates however it was not clear from their main page.

I wonder if other campaigns have something similar going on. I also know of one or two who had generous backers waiting to the last moment to take them over, or relative willing to step in and help out but not wanting to do so early.

Others have definitely looked suspicious.

I've seen this on a few diversity type projects recently. They ran offline fundraiser(s) and also accepted payments through PayPal. Mentioned it in updates. I also can't remember if it was mentioned on story page. I have seen at least one project in the last month include a PayPal link on the story page.