I will say that I didn't do enough research to see what his Kickstarter was all about, but just the premise of it was off putting.
He seems very genuine in this interview and is working with anti-rape/abuse organizations with how he will continue to write his book/guide.
From what I did read some in the article that is quoting the guide:
Experiment with each other! Ask her what her favorite positions are. Touch her everywhere, including her arms, legs, throat, face, and breasts. Make her cum with the force of the hammer of Thor. Rock her fucking world. There is no substitute for sexual experience. Anyone can become a sexual master with a little bit of research, applied effort, and healthy experimentation. Learn what YOU enjoy and seek it out in a partner. Genuinely love the act of giving sexual pleasure to another human being. It's a gift. Embrace it.
This part is pretty fucking spot on.
I think it's great the guy wants to start a conversation about these sorts of things. I believe he did an AMA on Reddit yesterday. Overall, I feel this guy's intentions were in a good place, and more than likely the internet hate machine overreacted.
This whole things makes me think about relationships and how complicated people make things out to be and how happy that I don't really have to deal with that sort of stuff.
The Video Game Years also hit their goal but would recommend giving then some bucks before they end. I included a sample episode below which includes Galaga.
John and Hank Green, the guys behind Crash Course, vlogbrothers and many other things, have started a new website which is basically a Kickstarter subscription service. It's called Subbable and it works like Kickstarter except that you pledge a monthly subscription fee of your choice. The money is drawn monthly from your payment service and the amount is "banked" to your account and you can use up this banked amount for perks and items from their store.
The first subbable project is Crash Course itself, as the partnership with YouTube kind of ran out and they are trying to keep the show running through a different funding process.
For example I know that when I use a credit card the card company is going to charge (whoever I am buying from) around 2-3% to process my transaction but (whoever I am buying from) does not state this openly, it is considered a cost of them doing business.
In this case that 5% charge that Amazon charges to process the payments is a cost of doing business and should be placed on the appropriate side of the balance sheet. Why stop there? Why not claim they only take 2% because the other 3% goes to the company that hosts their servers?
Unless Amazon is an equal partner in this business?
I know it may sound like I am splitting hairs but business does not do bookkeeping this way. That 5% that Amazon gets is charged to the business. It is taken out at the time the transaction is processed but the business gets to deduct it as an expense and must show the amount charged to the customer as income. So if a customer spends $100 they only get $95 because Amazon collects its 5% fee before giving the remaining $95 to the business. On their books they have to show $100 of income and a charge to Amazon of $5.
Are you actually arguing for less transparency in financial transactions? This isn't about how they keep their internal books, this is about what they present to their customers.
I am not arguing for less transparency, just pointing out that they are are doing this not for transparency but to make themselves look better. They want to walk around and say, "we only take 5%! We are awesome!!!" But they are actually telling a fib because they take 10% (only 90% goes to the content creators). Unless Amazon has a direct ownership of 50% they are being disingenuous in claiming to only take 5%.
They are publicly cooking their books.
This makes we wonder what other weird things they might do in the future. Will their fee go up but be explained away as some other business taking a cut?
I have noticed at conventions many artists use Square to take credit cards and some of them specifically tell you that they will tack on a 3% fee (what square charges them) on each transaction. I am 99% sure that such a fee is illegal.
I think that because so many artists are becoming involved with kickstarter they saw that in their FAQ and assumed it was legal to do this.
I am not sure of the legality behind kickstarters policy but I imagine someone would have either sued by now or the system has been so beneficial that no one complains.
EDIT: apparently the law was changed in Jan 2013 to allow merchants to pass on the fee for credit card transactions (but not debit). Still not sure how legal such a blanket fee is if it doesn't directly recognize that debit cards are immune to this fee.
Comments
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/06/megatokyo-kickstarter-topples-stretch-goals/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shiveryshakes/shivery-shakes-are-making-a-full-length-album
Good news: The game is still getting made, regardless!
Nintendo has given them a developers license for the Wii U!
I will say that I didn't do enough research to see what his Kickstarter was all about, but just the premise of it was off putting.
He seems very genuine in this interview and is working with anti-rape/abuse organizations with how he will continue to write his book/guide.
From what I did read some in the article that is quoting the guide:
There is no substitute for sexual experience. Anyone can become a sexual master with a little bit of research, applied effort, and healthy experimentation. Learn what YOU enjoy and seek it out in a partner. Genuinely love the act of giving sexual pleasure to another human being. It's a gift. Embrace it.
This part is pretty fucking spot on.
I think it's great the guy wants to start a conversation about these sorts of things. I believe he did an AMA on Reddit yesterday. Overall, I feel this guy's intentions were in a good place, and more than likely the internet hate machine overreacted.
This whole things makes me think about relationships and how complicated people make things out to be and how happy that I don't really have to deal with that sort of stuff.
Armikrog looks like its going to be coming soon.
The first subbable project is Crash Course itself, as the partnership with YouTube kind of ran out and they are trying to keep the show running through a different funding process.
Why would a content creator use their service rather than a PayPal subscription button or some other form of subscription payment?
Essentially you are asking "why should I use Kickstarter? Why can't I just click the Paypal Donate button on their website?"
Service with perks = dollars instead of quarters
It also looks like they are selling a service that kickstarter has been (rightly or wrongly) used for: financing AFTER initial seed money.
I thought kickstarter was meant to provide initial funding and not designed as a continued source of funding.
And the reason why they didn't say that they take a 10% cut is that they don't. They don't get 10%. They get 5%. Amazon gets the other 5%
For example I know that when I use a credit card the card company is going to charge (whoever I am buying from) around 2-3% to process my transaction but (whoever I am buying from) does not state this openly, it is considered a cost of them doing business.
In this case that 5% charge that Amazon charges to process the payments is a cost of doing business and should be placed on the appropriate side of the balance sheet. Why stop there? Why not claim they only take 2% because the other 3% goes to the company that hosts their servers?
Unless Amazon is an equal partner in this business?
I know it may sound like I am splitting hairs but business does not do bookkeeping this way. That 5% that Amazon gets is charged to the business. It is taken out at the time the transaction is processed but the business gets to deduct it as an expense and must show the amount charged to the customer as income. So if a customer spends $100 they only get $95 because Amazon collects its 5% fee before giving the remaining $95 to the business. On their books they have to show $100 of income and a charge to Amazon of $5.
They take 10%.
Everything else is improper bookkeeping.
They are publicly cooking their books.
This makes we wonder what other weird things they might do in the future. Will their fee go up but be explained away as some other business taking a cut?
http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/kickstarter+basics#faq_41854
I have noticed at conventions many artists use Square to take credit cards and some of them specifically tell you that they will tack on a 3% fee (what square charges them) on each transaction. I am 99% sure that such a fee is illegal.
I think that because so many artists are becoming involved with kickstarter they saw that in their FAQ and assumed it was legal to do this.
I am not sure of the legality behind kickstarters policy but I imagine someone would have either sued by now or the system has been so beneficial that no one complains.
EDIT: apparently the law was changed in Jan 2013 to allow merchants to pass on the fee for credit card transactions (but not debit). Still not sure how legal such a blanket fee is if it doesn't directly recognize that debit cards are immune to this fee.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shiveryshakes/shivery-shakes-are-making-a-full-length-album
The Video Game Years took 45 days to get over $10,000 on indiegogo
The Game Chasers took less than a day to get over $10,000 on indiegogo
The Internet scares me at times.