This project is about bringing awareness to the underbelly of crowdfunding. While the vast majority of crowd-funding projects are legitimate and transparent I believe that there is room for improvement in both how projects engage the community and also how the community embraces crowdfunding.
With our website and video series I believe we can create a more transparent community where people won't be afraid to ask a lot of questions, where people won't face retaliation for calling out a project when it's clear they're not answering questions, and we hope you'll be a part of it.
The Plan:
Videos: One of the goals is to have a web-series of YouTube videos discussing how we as a community can increase transparency and make people feel safer pledging large amounts.
Episodes will include(but won't be limited to):
*How to spot a potentially fraudulent project at a glance.
*What to look for when reading comments to determine whether they're a shill.
*How project organizers should respond to any questions of legitimacy.
*Interviews with successful project Managers and how they engaged the backers.
*Interviews with those that never received products and who believe fraud was involved.
*We will attempt to get in contact with scammers to see if they will discuss what they're doing anonymously.
*How to prevent retaliation for asking questions or helping expose a scam.
*How to determine the difference between a scam and a project that just couldn't get off the ground. Starting a successful project is NOT easy and I'm learning first-hand the difficulty of getting a project up and running.
Website: The second main goal is to create a website that can act as a real time clearinghouse of information when it comes to crowdfunded projects. We will allow people to openly discuss projects without having backed the projects, we will allow people to rate other users and rate the questions and answers given, and we will work to create a place where people can track projects across the internet and discuss them in an organized and non-hostile environment.
Project creators will be invited to participate and increase transparency while ultimately letting their project stand on it's own two feet. (That means no shilling, no fake accounts, no hostility towards those asking legitimate questions)
We will have a Ventrilo server and google Hangout set up for donors to discuss projects in real time.
My Motivation:
http://www.reddit.com/r/kickstarter/comments/1g9utn/likely_major_kickstarter_fraud_uncovered_kobe_red/
The above link is for those that might need some backstory.
On June 13th, 2013 my life changed forever.
I woke up determined to get answers in regards to a project where the project managers weren't being responsive and where very few people were asking the right questions. Little did I know that I would not only be right in questioning the project but that the scammers would retaliate against me personally.
The project got cancelled at the last second and I thought that would be the end of it, I got up, went to work, and went about my daily business. That's when things went downhill and the scammer decided to take revenge on me. Not only did the scammer contact my friends and family defaming me by calling me a convicted Felon(I've never had so much as a misdemeanor to my name), he went so far as to find my work's Facebook and yelp page and post false information about me on it.
That's when I realized there HAS to be a better way, a way for people to bring up doubts about a project around the Internet and a way for people to collaborate to determine legitimacy without risking backlash.
What I have already:
A web developer. He has over a decade of web development projects, is extremely skilled, and he will be helping me with the website.
Business experience. I have a significant amount of business experience managing and running family businesses and I will put it to good use to make sure this project succeeds.
I have a plan in place to make this a success and the motivation to make scamming more difficult.
How will the funds be used?
$16,000 is a lot of money, but at the end of the day it's the minimum we need to get the ball rolling and to ensure the success of this project.
*Professionally Built Website - $10,000.
*Ventrilo Server for 1 year capable of hosting 400 people- $1,440
The last $4,560 will be used for a new video camera, taxes,processing fees, and to hedge against any unforeseen expenses that arise.Anything raise above and beyond the $16,000 will be used for stretch goals and additional web content/YouTube episodes.
Total = $16,000
My goal is to help bring more transparency to the world of crowdfunding and I can't do it without your help, this is about minimizing scams and holding projects accountable.
Potential issues:
I am not very camera-ready so my initial videos are probably going to suck. That said is anyone really Camera-ready? How many shaky videos did the current kings of YouTube have before they got their break?
The website may take longer than expected depending on how many features we choose to launch with. This is an ambitious project and thus certain features may change depending on feasibility and timing.