[sdiy] On the Internet, talk is cheap

[cheater00 .]

Tom,

On Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 3:10 PM, Tom Ivar Helbekkmo <tih at hamartun.priv.no> wrote:
> "cheater00 ." <cheater00 at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I think Kickstarter isn't about group buys, is it?
>
> Should be within scope, I'd think.  The latest project I bought into on
> Kickstarter was a cartoonist's attempt to self-publish a book.  Enough
> of us pledged to purchase a copy that the project went ahead.  In this
> case, someone wanted to be (albeit temporarily) a retail seller of a
> product that could only be bought in bulk, and needed a number of
> certain purchasers signed up to make it worthwhile.  Not too different.

I think the difference is that Kickstarter is for *kick starting*
businesses. It means that someone's got an idea which he wants to
implement, would like to build a viable, sustainable business around
it, and can't get off the ground because initial investment is too
much. The cartoonist falls under this description, a group buy does
not - but correct me if I'm wrong and they actually have supported
group buys in the past.