The Complete Bastard's Guide To Journalism

[Weaver]

Kickstarter only let's Americans and the British use it.

I really wish I knew where that conceit comes from, 'cause this isn't the first time I've heard this... Anyways, it's wrong; there are no inherent geographical restrictions whatsoever on Kickstarter. The only mention of it in their ToS is:

International:
Accessing the Service is prohibited from territories where the Content is illegal. If you access the Service from other locations, you do so at your own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws.

For a well-known, non-US/UK project example: Dreamfall Chapters. Red Thread Games. Oslo, Norway. [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/redthread/dreamfall-chapters-the-longest-journey?ref=live]

Then there's the front page where they list 10 populare cities projects come from and while it's true that 90% of it is US cities, the 10th one is Montreal, Canada.

Also on the front page right now is a project from Donaueschingen, Germany [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/90500578/mother-tongue-0?ref=discover_rec] and one from Ljubljana, Slovenia [http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nklansek/musguard-a-removable-rollable-bicycle-fender?ref=discover_pop].
Edit: Nevermind those. The guys are doing it from within the US, even though one of them will ship you backer rewards from Bulgaria, for some fucking reason. Still, Dreamfall and the many projects from Montreal should be proof enough that it works.

Why, from this page good sir:
http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/creator%20questions#WhoIsEligToStarAKickProj

Who is eligible to start a Kickstarter project?

To be eligible to start a Kickstarter project as a US creator, you need to meet the following requirements:

?You are 18 years of age or older.*
?You are a permanent US resident with a Social Security Number (or EIN).
?You have a US address, US bank account, and US state-issued ID (driver?s license).
?You have a major US credit or debit card.

To start a project as a UK creator, you need to meet these requirements:

?You are 18 years of age or older.*
?You are a permanent UK resident either creating a project in your own name or on behalf of a legal entity with a Companies House Number.
?You have a UK address, UK bank account, and government-issued ID (driver?s license or passport).
?You have a major UK credit or debit card.

*Parents and teachers can launch projects in collaboration with children under 18 only if the adult registers for the Kickstarter and payments accounts and is in charge of running the project itself.

Most bigger groups are able to setup a US mailing address, get a credit card and use an incorporated entity within the US as a "permanent US resident" or have someone there claim their residency. Individuals, however, don't have the resources to do this.

It's worth nothing, there are no other "project options" to pick from. You can either pick a US or a UK one, nothing else is available.

 

[Weaver]

Snip

Well, fuck me... They are huge assholes after all. I guess seeing dozens of projects right next to me and a whole lot "More from Canada", as the site tells me, misled the hell out of me. I hate this regional bollocks so much I have to remember to breathe.

Ranting tangent: Just yesterday I got an email from Nvidia announcing the GTX 780 and offering me entry into a sweepstakes.

"Cool!" I thought,
"I hope it's not US-only" and it wasn't!

Official rules listed a whole slew of countries: US, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Finland, Czech Republic, Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, India, Brazil and Canada. This shit spans the entire planet, but a ton of countries are still excluded. Why some of the EU but not all of it? Why Brazil and not the rest of SA? Why US/Canada and not Mexico? But most egregious of all, were these parentheses next to Canada: "(Excluding the Province of Quebec)" ...Motherfuckers.

On the internet, there are no borders and global shipping is exceedingly simple these days; Get with it, assholes!

I'm with you, Brother!
We could at the very goddamn least have regional restrictions and release dates removed from digital items. This could be out of every digital distribution system by tomorrow if they wanted it. Instead companies are still pretending this is the 80s.

This is the internet age. I can have a phone conversation with live video with anyone on the planet (who has the required hardware and internet). They put that in the Jetsons because it seemed like far off crazy future-tech, but here we are. I'm posting to forums visible to anyone on the world at the same time; and you're going to tell me it really takes Dr. Who 6 months to release in NA? That hollywood movies actually have to be released 2 weeks later in Europe?

I know companies aren't ready for this yet, but digital goods don't need to be shipped. They can be distributed for basically 0 cost, and that can be instantaneous. We should be embracing these capabilities not fighting them!

 

[MPerce]

*reads link*
Wow, you weren't kidding, Grey. That's the most ridiculous thing I've read this week, and I've been reading about the Xbox One reveal.

BaZING!!!!

......

yeah, that wasn't funny at all.

 

[Amir Kondori]

Who reads Gawker media stuff? Jezebel? Nope.

 

[Formica Archonis]

My random thoughts:

No other media outlet, even the ones with the scratch, is touching these guys with a ten foot pole. Is this not ample warning to Gawker and their victibackers of how fantastically bad an idea this is?

Also, when Indiegogo's weekly e-mail headlined this... er... "effort", my opinion of them dropped into the basement. Though to be fair I only read the subject line before disgust overtook me; maybe the text of the e-mail was them vocally denouncing the idea as the worst one they've ever hosted.

Somehow, though, I doubt it.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Ah yes, we truly live in the age of crowdsourcing. This whole thing has just made me giggle from a distance.

 

[Megacherv]

Is it just me or is that the Satan from THUG2?

 

[DanielG]

Official rules listed a whole slew of countries: US, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Finland, Czech Republic, Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, India, Brazil and Canada. This shit spans the entire planet, but a ton of countries are still excluded. Why some of the EU but not all of it? Why Brazil and not the rest of SA? Why US/Canada and not Mexico? But most egregious of all, were these parentheses next to Canada: "(Excluding the Province of Quebec)" ...Motherfuckers.

I don't know about the other countries but in respect to Quebec it all has to do with the province's laws regarding sweepstakes and contests. The companies decide that it isn't worth the extra cost/effort to offer the contest there. That's why even some Canadian contests don't include Quebec.

 

[bimon_1234567]

I just like the fact that Satan is using Apple.

He probably owns company stock.

 

[Chrono212]

I'd love to see how Cory interprets surrealism.

OT: Gawker group news is like trying to understand the history of Afganistan by reading Now magazine.

 

[Coles_Law]

Ranting tangent: Just yesterday I got an email from Nvidia announcing the GTX 780 and offering me entry into a sweepstakes.

"Cool!" I thought,
"I hope it's not US-only" and it wasn't!

Official rules listed a whole slew of countries: US, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Finland, Czech Republic, Australia, China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, India, Brazil and Canada. This shit spans the entire planet, but a ton of countries are still excluded. Why some of the EU but not all of it? Why Brazil and not the rest of SA? Why US/Canada and not Mexico? But most egregious of all, were these parentheses next to Canada: "(Excluding the Province of Quebec)" ...Motherfuckers.

On the internet, there are no borders and global shipping is exceedingly simple these days; Get with it, assholes!

It may not be the company's fault. Some countries/provinces have some crazy rules on sweepstakes. Quebec, for example, requires anyone holding a sweepstakes in Quebec to pay a fee equal to 10% of the total prize value, among other things:

http://contests.about.com/od/sweepstakes101/f/VoidinQuebec.htm

Gotta love bureaucracy.

 

[AlwaystheUnlucky]

For a second there, i thought that the cat was Kyubey from PMMM. It kinda makes sense, too.

 

[Someonetookmyname]

I didn't know goats kept ALL their blood in their throats.

Satan: WHY DO PEOPLE KEEP SENDING ME GOATS!?! DO THEY THINK I FUCK THEM OR SOMETHING? I've got succubi for that!

Well, we used to make some pretty good shwarma, but the guy who cooks it is on a thousand year vacation, so we don't really need the meat anymore...

Now hell is shwarming with the damned things!

I hope someone bans you, or at least gives you a goat for that comment.

 

[NearLifeExperience]

So let me get this straight.. this gossip magazine Gawker is willing to fund drug dealers in order to publicly crucify the major of Toronto for using drugs in his youth?

 

[NearLifeExperience]

*meant to merge these but whatevs*

How can not anyone at that magazine think "hey wait a tick! this is completely warped!" Why do people get their knickers in a twist over their major's drug using past, but are totally a-okay with a magazine funding the very same drug dealers that claim to have supplied the major? This just doesn't add up!