As of Wednesday, June 3, Kickstarter has announced that it will be introducing “dramatically simplified rules” for all Kickstarter campaigns, and it will also be introducing a brand new feature coined as “Launch Now” – two important changes “that make Kickstarter easier to use than ever before, and improve a couple parts of the system we know haven’t always been as simple as they could be.”
After taking a good long look at its guidelines, Kickstarter has boiled them all down all its rules to just three basic principles, which are detailed below.
- Projects must create something to share with others;
- Projects must be honest and clearly presented; and
- Projects cannot fundraise for charity, offer financial incentives, or involve prohibited items.
According to Kickstarter, these three principles highlight exactly what the service is all about: “making things, sharing them with others, and being honest with the people helping you do it.” No new rules have been added to Kickstarter’s guidelines, but – as you can see – a lot has certainly been removed.
As for Kickstarter’s Launch Now feature, it’s basically a means of the service further providing support and freedom to creators when campaigning for their projects. Essentially, Launch Now gives creators the choice of either launching their projects whenever they’re ready, or first consulting one of Kickstarter’s Community Managers for feedback.
“Over the past five years, our Community Managers have offered their expertise to more than 100,000 creators — sharing advice, encouragement, and support to give creators the best chance of success. We love doing it, and we’re always here to help. But we’re pleased to offer creators a simpler process for sharing their projects with the world, and the flexibility to choose how much help they need,” Kickstarter wrote in its announcement.
“We’re rolling out Launch Now in stages. It’s currently available to 60% of projects, and we’ll be expanding it to more projects in the weeks to come,” it added.
A more complete explanation of the guidelines have been listed below.
-
Projects must create something to share with others:
Kickstarter can be used to create all sorts of things: art and gadgets, events and spaces, ideas and experiences. But every project needs a plan for creating something and sharing it with the world. At some point, the creator should be able to say: “It’s finished. Here’s what we created. Enjoy!”
-
Projects must be honest and clearly presented:
Our community is built on trust and communication. Projects can’t mislead people or misrepresent facts, and creators should be candid about what they plan to accomplish. When a project involves manufacturing and distributing something complex, like a gadget, we require projects to show a prototype of what they’re making, and we prohibit photorealistic renderings.
-
Projects can’t fundraise for charity, offer financial incentives, or involve prohibited items:
We’re all in favor of charity and investment, but they’re not permitted on Kickstarter. Projects can’t promise to donate funds raised to a charity or cause, and they can’t offer financial incentives like equity or repayment. We also can’t allow any of these prohibited things.
[ Kickstarter ]