Kickstarter Introduces Stricter Hardware and Product Design Guidelines

[Rob Williams]

In an effort to prevent projects from over-promising and under-delivering (or not delivering at all), Kickstarter has issued some new guidelines that new projects must adhere to. With so many projects lately being labeled as scams or potential scams, it's no wonder that the company has felt it necessary to increase backer security, and I've got to say, some of the new rules should be quite affective.

Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!

 

[madmat]

what if your project is vaporware?

Yeah, I agree that it should have been mandatory to have a working prototype from the outset.

 

[ET3D]

Thanks for the heads up. As I commented on the Kickstarter item, I think it would have been better to force showing the current state of the project, rather than disallow showing the vision for it. Still, the idea of forcing the creators to think of and discuss the risks is good for everyone, IMO.

 

[madmat]

Thanks for the heads up. As I commented on the Kickstarter item, I think it would have been better to force showing the current state of the project, rather than disallow showing the vision for it. Still, the idea of forcing the creators to think of and discuss the risks is good for everyone, IMO.

The thing is, you can have a prototype that's nothing like the final design. It's just showing that you have proof of concept rather than just an idea.

It's basically what the patent office needs to start doing. Don't just patent abstract ideas, patent working things.