I recently posted about The Great Supply Chain Disruption. Surprisingly to me, I've gotten ZERO updates from ANY open Kickstarters I've backed since that announcement talking about fulfillment delays that could be blamed on shipping printed books from China - and I know a few fall into that category.
So, why no updates?
I think for the bulk of them, avoiding the issue until it can't be put off any further is simply a trait of human nature. No one really enjoys negative feedback, so if you can delay it, so much the better.
Take Far West for example. Gareth has no issue with using Twitter on a damn near-daily basis but hasn't updated the Kickstarter page since July 19th, 2019. Well over two years ago.
Why would that be? Well, He did say you can ask him questions about Far West on his Far West Forums, but you can't sign up for them - the sign-up app is broken and there hasn't been a comment there since February of this year.
The thing is, comments on Kickstarter, and Indiegogo to the best of my knowledge, can't be moderated by the project creator. So, if the angry mobs of a late Kickstarter decide to engage with the creator, the creator can not control the ebb and flow of the conversation. The narrative belongs to the mob. Often a righteous mob but a mob nonetheless.
And this is why many creators don't engage on their project page when they go into the realms of the late, late, late project.
Communication is where many Kickstarters fail horribly.
Agreed, a lack of communication is usually the first sign a project is going wrong. There hasn't been communication on the Marmorial Tomb Kickstarter from either creator in years. The project would be dead as a doornail if the Troll Lords hadn't stepped in.
ReplyDeleteFor some people the workaround for the Far West forum is to comment under the latest blog entry:
ReplyDeletehttp://intothefarwest.com/2021/02/22/the-long-trail-home/
It's better than nothing, but I'm quite surprised that most of the comments are relatively positive.
Gareth controls the narrative. I suspect negative comments don't last long. Its not the same on the KS comments page
DeleteSpeaking of comments in the blog:
Delete"admin says:
October 15, 2021 at 11:13 am
Simply put, I don’t see any point in further updates beyond “It’s finished, here you go” — which I am still planning on posting before the year is out.
Further updates on the Kickstarter page don’t change the minds of people who are pissed off, and the folks who are patient know that I’m working on it, so it doesn’t really serve any purpose to say so."
That's an... interesting take on communication with his customers. Nothing out of the ordinary for him, though.
"Grumpy" was me. I suspect the comment would have been deleted had I commented as Tenkar ;)
DeleteI see. That seems very likely, yeah. :)
DeleteHe deletes the comments he doesn't like.
DeleteSo true and it's annoying as completion dates fly past and not a peep from the creators which just adds to backers becoming angry, no one likes hearing complaints but then no one likes having their complaints/questions ignored. If a Kickstarter fails then just say sorry and let people know don't leave people in the dark month after month.
ReplyDelete