Influence of Reddit on Kickstarter Campaigns - Alex Samaei May 10, 2015 LSTU E 120 Internet and Society: Technologies of Politics of Control ...
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HARVARD UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SCHOOL
Influence of Reddit on
Kickstarter Campaigns
Alex Samaei
May 10, 2015
LSTU E120 Internet and Society: Technologies of
Politics of Control
Assignment 4: Final PaperBackground on Kickstarter
Kickstarter is a popular crowdfunding website which has secured over $1.5 billion in
funding for thousands of creative projects since it launched in 2009. The Kickstarter website
serves as a platform for anyone who wants to make their project a reality. It does this by
allowing ‘creators’ who are over 18 years old to create a free account and post a project under
one of the 11 different categories. Creators design a profile describing their project, goals and
even an optional video, together this is call their campaign. When launched their campaign
page allows anyone with internet access to donate to bring the project to life. It is encouraged
that creators offer different reward levels for different monetary contributions from ‘backers.’
So if you donate above a set amount, you would receive some sort of reward, often
associated with project. For example, if you donate to a musician they would often give an
autographed copy of one of their CDs. Campaigns have between 060 days to raise the
necessary funds to meet their goal. If they are successful, Kickstarter sends the creator the
money minus a 5% service fee as well as 35% payment processing fee. If a project does not
reach the necessary goal then backers are never charged and there is no exchange of
money. Because of the deadline creators will often advertise their project on various platforms
in hopes of receiving more backers.
Background on Reddit
Reddit is an online open source network of communities that anyone with an email
account can join. Last month the website had over 168K unique visitors from over 200
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countries. Each user has the ability to create their own ‘subreddit’ for any topic they want
(i.e. /r/Barbie, /r/Pokemon, /r/CatPictures) and there is no limit on the amount of subreddits a
user can create. Other users can then join these communities and make posts that are
Page 1relevant. Posts are filtered by a ranking of ‘upvotes’ and ‘downvotes’ that are made by other
users. The more upvotes a post receives, the higher it gets on the page listing. It is the hope
of most users to get enough upvotes to be featured on the front page of Reddit. The front
page is a customizable combination of several subreddits that is often viewed by thousands of
members before the post dissipates with time. Reddit is a very transparent community which
often draws users to post topics that could be seen as controversial on other networks.
The Community
With over $1 million being pledged every single day a large set of users has evolved
from Kickstarter in the form of backers and creators. Out of the entire pool of backers an
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impressive ~30% are repeat who have funded two or more projects. The communication
between these backers has been limited on its website due to a lack of a proper forum for
discussion. Also, a user can only post comments to a project page if they are already a
backer for that project and would have to privately message the creator otherwise. This
causes Kickstarter users to discuss issues on various other websites including Twitter,
Tumblr, and Reddit. But due to it’s popularity and transparency, Reddit has risen to be one of
the main platforms where discussions take place. In these forums users are meant to ask
questions such as: how to best advertise their Kickstarter page, promote interesting projects
they’ve found, and give advice on approaching a campaign launch. The problem right now is,
that’s not all that is being discussed.
The Reddit community seems to functions as a soapbox for the Kickstarter users to
voice their opinion. It can be used to gain funding for dying projects, as well as call out fraud
in others. Currently Kickstarter has no control over the inner workings of Reddit, which can put
the website into a difficult position if not correctly monitored. We will examine in this paper the
Page 2question: Why do Kickstarter users turn to the Reddit community to discuss specifics of their
site? And more precisely, the problem that Kickstarter cannot control their users activities in
the Reddit community, but they still affect project campaigns.
Controversial Projects
Reddit has been known to raise funds for appropriate campaigns such as a “Prismata”
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game and “Tabletop Simulator by Berserk Games” , but this is not always the case.
Because of it’s open and diverse nature, Reddit has also helped spring life into projects that
go against Kickstarters main rules. Currently Kickstarter tries to keep their governing simple
by having three main rules for projects which are as follows:
○ Project:
■ Projects must create something to share with others
■ Projects must be honest and clearly presented
■ Projects can’t fundraise for charity, offer financial incentives, or involve
prohibited items
Unfortunately when examining the relationship between the two websites these rules do not
transfer and Kickstarter is often slow to respond to the large community on Reddit. Instead
Kickstarter should be making changes to they way they frame their website to make better
use of Lessig’s forces of control.
Image 1: Graphical representation of Lessig forces of control 16
Page 3First we will look at a more lighthearted project that became a media sensation: Potato
Salad. This kickstarter was unique to say the least. Creator, Zack Brown, stated “Basically I’m
just making potato salad. I haven’t decided what kind yet.” 7 Within a few hours Brown had a
call from CNET asking questions about the project and in a few days he would appear in The
New Yorker, Good Morning America, and The Verge. According to Kickstarter the campaign
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had been referenced by the media 2,068 times in over 54 countries. But when the numbers
were broken down by The Atlantic it was shown that Reddit was what really pushed funding
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into the five digits. When the project was posted to /r/Offbeats it gained the momentum it
need to reach the front page of the site and hundreds of new backers. Interestingly, most
backers only donated $14 and only accounted for ~20% of the total funds. This means that a
small group of backers were contributing ~80% of the total donations. Again, this makes
sense because with larger exposure the campaign is more likely to attract all types of
backers, some of whom are more willing to make larger donations. In the end the project
received over $55,000 in funding when it had only asked for $10.
While the majority of media was commenting on the comicalness of it all, there was a
growing group of antibackers who did not want this project to succeed. The group argued
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that money would be much better spent supporting the arts, science, or health care. Writer,
Rebecca Chao, did a sample study of comments posted on Facebook about the project and
found 70% of comments were negative of the use of funding to support this silliness. 7 Many
of these comments came from supposed kickstarter users who felt the project was degrading
to their community. It is suggested that the project may have been a financial success
because it found its niche environment in Reddit. In this instance Kickstarter chose to
embrace the success of the project, openly acknowledging it’s humor and even stating that
aim high and go big, but small projects are great too.” 8 By
the site is a place that users can “
Page 4making the public statement that they supported creative projects such as these, Kickstarter
changed the framework of their market. ‘Potato Salad’ was the first widely publicised project
campaign which did not originally serve to “create something to share with others.” This is an
interesting example of how Reddit was able to take a project that was doing mildly successful
and make it a financial success to the point that Kickstarter reacted.
The next controversial case is on a project called “Above the Game: A Guide to
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Getting Awesome with Women” created by Reddit user Ken Hoinsky on May 29, 2013. This
proposed project was to compile a series of post that Hoinsky made on /r/seddit, a seduction
themed subreddit, and create a howto book. This was not seen as a violation of of the
subreddit's rules and thus would not be removed by the moderators. Still though with the help
of Reddit, the project gained popularity and managed to greatly pass it’s $2,000 goal and
raise $16,369 dollars. 5 Many Kickstarter users were offended by the content, believing it
encouraged sexual assault by making suggestions such as “Don’t ask for permissions. Be
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dominant.” This led to
calls for the project to be shut down, coming from various news
outlets such as the Huffington Post and the Guardian. Many stating that they had reported the
project at the bottom of the campaign page as the websites architecture requires.
Unfortunately Kickstarter did not respond until the deadline had passed and money had
changed hands.
On July 21, 2013 Kickstarter published an apology letter on their official blog titled “We
Were Wrong”, which explained their failure to cancel the project. It was states that they were
only informed of the campaign 2hours before the deadline; and because of this did not have
time to do a proper investigation. If the websites architecture had been more efficient they
may have had an opportunity to perform an investigation. At this time it is unclear why they
only had a 2hour window from when a human was informed to the project deadline. The
Page 5letter stated that the project should not have been allowed to launch in the first place due to
it’s offensive material towards women and merely fell through the cracks. In a last ditch effort
to gain back the public's trust Kickstarter banned all future ‘seduction guide’ projects and
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donated $25,000 to RAINN, an antisexual assault organization.
/r/Kickstarter reacted to the
letter with mixed feelings. While many users wrote comments such as “many companies
could learn a thing or two from you,” others wrote that “this [project] doesn’t seem offensive at
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all.” In general though the letter was met with mostly praise, users thanking the company for
being sincere and making a real effort to right their wrongs. This did not change the way
content is regulated on Reddit or any specific subreddits. Still some criticized that Kickstarter
was in fact able to shut the project down or at least pause it with a 2hour window because
they had done it before.
The project in question was titled Kobe Red, and set its goal to raise $2,400 to mass
produce Kobe beefbased jerky, but instead reached over $120,000. There were a few red
flags which documentarians, Jay Armitage and Jason Cooper, noticed while creating their film
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‘Kickstarted.’ The film was going to do a story on interesting Kickstarter campaigns and
tried to reach out to the Kobe Red creator. They found his excuses to avoid meeting and
general production concept to be faulty and decided to do more research on the campaign.
After some time Cooper took his findings and posted them onto /r/Kickstarter and /r/KobeRed
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in an effort to expose the campaign as a fraud. Already close to the deadline for the project
the campaign was shut down by Kickstarter with only a few hours left to go. This could have
been accomplished sooner but because Kickstarter had been slow to respond to reports in
the past, it had become the norm for calls of fraud to be made on other sites. Reddit allowed a
public forum with very little red tape where they were instantly able to notify thousands of
people about the fraud taking place. Kickstarter declined to make a statement, claiming that
Page 6they never discuss why a project is shut down. Soon news stories began to popup which
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attributed the findings to Armitage and Cooper. It was through their use of Reddit that the
fraudulent campaign was exposed.
Interestingly Armitage and Cooper were not alone in using Reddit before Kickstarter to
expose corruption. In late 2014 a campaign to fund a device titled Anonobox was launched by
August Germar which claimed that it could make it’s users online activity private. The
campaign had reached $600,000 in pledges when Redditors began to take notice that the
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device resembled a minirouter already being sold in China. Several posts began to arise
on different subreddits pointing out how the product was being misrepresented and was
clearly the same as a product being sold in China for a fraction of the price. All requests for
interviews from websites such as Motherboard and Mashable, who had heard about the story,
were denied. Instead Germar decided to do a Q&A on Reddit itself in hopes of clearing up
some of the legitimacy issues at the source. He chose to post on /r/Ananobox, a subreddit
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that would seemingly be a safe choice to avoid troublesome questions.
Unfortunately for him the idea backfired with top posts becoming a platform for
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backers to point out all the flaws with the device and exploit it as a scam. The project had
been reported by various users before it made it to the front page. This only further hurt
Kickstarter’s attempt at a norm regulation because it took far too long between when a report
was submitted and when a project was shut down. DigitalTrends.com reported when
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Anonobox was finally shut down by Kickstarter for breaking their rules.
Reasoning & Solution
All these cases show the Reddit communities influence on many Kickstarter
campaigns success and failures. The dilemma that arises for Kickstarter is best states as a
Page 7question: Why are people more vocal about Kickstarter campaigns on Reddit than on
Kickstarter? This is a concern because users should be able to solve Kickstarter issues within
that site without having to resort to using their “soapbox” (aka Reddit) to gain enough support
to make a difference.
Architecture
Ideally Kickstarter wants its users to be actively involved in the community and call out
issues that they see may be violating any rules. By making the appropriate selections at the
bottom of a project page a report is generated. Currently all reports go through the Integrity
Team who reviews and takes appropriate actions to correct if necessary. By asking users to
stay within these simple rules and remaining a third party in all other disputes Kickstarter has
attempted to become a neutral voice. They believe this is the best way to become an open
platform for creators to feel free to propose any appropriate project. However, the at times
slow response of the Integrity Team has backers commenting on Reddit such as “[slow
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responses] make their site, and their company look bad.”
This process came as part of Kickstarter’s policy changes in 2014 in an attempt to
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streamline project launches. Previously each project needed to be vetted by a ‘community
manager’ who would make sure the project is ready for launch and follows all rules provided.
The change to an automatedformulaic system, is a reflection on how much Kickstarter has
grown since it’s launch in 2009. By automating this screening process the company is able to
take approve more projects at a time and keep up with their market demand.
Still there is room for further improvement on the design on the website. For example,
currently on any project page only backers are allowed to add comments. If you are not yet a
backer and have a question, you have the ability to send a private message to the creator.
This is a problem in itself because it lacks transparency for other users to see how a question
Page 8was answered. If potential backers could see a more open communication it could help
answer doubts that they may have. This could also allow for more users to spot red flags
when they arise so that it does not fall solely on the shoulders of the person asking a question
to research. Giving more transparency to all users on individual project pages would remove
the need to use Reddit to ask questions.
Norms
The norms followed by Kickstarter users is where the main issue currently lies. It is the
norm for many users to turn to Reddit in order to ask questions and raise concerns about a
project. Even if the users was more familiar with Reddit, the Kickstarter website should allow
for new users to answer questions inhouse. As mentioned above, the project pages do not
allow for a user to post comments if they are not a current backer of that project. If a user
sees red flags on a project page they are not likely to back the project in order to post a
comment and hopefully receive a good answer from the creator. So the backers either report
the project, which creates more complaints for the Integrity Team to go through, or they turn
to another website. By turning to Reddit, a site with hundreds of thousands of users with
varying expertise, potential backers can get quicker responses.
A change of norms is needed for Kickstarter to continue on their path of growth while
maintaining/improving user trust. It needs to be a user's first response to post on Kickstarter,
reach out to their customer service, and solve issues inhouse. And the way to go about
changing these norms is to further improve the architecture of the site to make it the natural
response. Ideally complaints/reports would have a quicker turn around instead of the varying
timeline there is now. Giving an actual response with brief reasoning would help users feel
more connected to the community on their own website. And doing so in a timely fashion
allows each individual to feel like they have a larger impact than they would if all the
Page 9complaints go unanswered or unreplied for days. Ideally a user would be informed of exactly
where in the process their complaint is: Submitted, Waiting to be Evaluated, Being Evaluated,
Decision Rendered. The more a user is informed of where they are in a process the more
involved they feel. Of course the base issue here still remains timeliness and openness from
Kickster. These new processes would need to be expedited and given a solid answer to all
possible complaints.
Last, the openness of Reddit is what attracts Kickstarter users to post. Kickstarter
should be able to start an open online forum which could be divided by project category and
allow users to generate original posts and have open discussions. These posts need not be
tied to individual projects, but can be when desired. Allowing users to pitch ideas and discuss
controversial projects within the confines of this forum could allow Kickstarter to track
sensitive projects closely and hopefully prevent another “Above the Game” project fiasco.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Kickstarter community has emerged within Reddit due to its
immense power in numbers. By using Reddit projects can gain backing when they might not
have, or be exposed for a sham. The conflict lies in Kickstarters slow response and openness
with complaints with its users which forces them to turn to Reddit in situations which ideally
would be handled by the former. If Kickstarter changed it’s design to allow more transparency
for users and a real platform for discussion, then users might not need to turn to other parties
in order to bring to light issues. This would also help the Kickstarter community to manage
some of the projects which do not sit well with them ethically. Reddit will continue to be a
powerful voice to gain funding, but it needn't be a soapbox to expose corruption within
another community.
Page 10Essay Portion Word Count: 3298
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8
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19
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20
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21
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