"Your experiences with Kickstarter and Indiegogo?" Topic

I have read a great deal of praise, and, altenratively, a large amount of derizion of various Kickstarter projects on this site. Speaking for myself, I have not had any bad experiences with a crowdfunding project, but I am sure that someday, at least if I am not careful, that will happen. I know others have had much worse experiences (Defiance Games anyone?).

I'd like to ask several questions

1) How do you decide if you back a crowdfunding project? Do you only support projects from large, established brands? Do you simply choose whatever interests you? Is it something else?

2) How many experiences have you had with crowdfunding projects? How many were satisfactory? How many were not? Why? Were the delays the problem or was it an actual issue of fulfilment?

3) Where have you backed crowdfunding projects? Indiegogo? Kickstarter? Elsewhere? Did the crowdfunding site make any difference in your decision(s) to fund or not fund?

4) Have you backed any projects other than miniature games? What about board games? Books? Charitable causes? Others?

I've only backed a few KS projects and they have delivered what I expected.

When I have, I have looked at the people running the KS project, if they had a track record of producing anything before, and what their production schedule looked like. Is it realistic? For example, I've seen KS projects for a box 'o miniatures that end in May and deliver in June of the same year. Huh? Not going to happen, so that tells me they have no clue about their production schedule.

Are the Add-ons reasonable? If the project has well defined add-ons and unlocks, are they all included or do they cost extra, or a mix? I've seen some KS projects for miniatures where a relatively basic funding level gets you all the basic stuff plus a whole bunch the unlock miniatures for free. You know that's problematic given production costs, delays, etc. So if I see that I may guess the KS project manager isn't clear on their cost structure and they may flame out and run out of money before they can complete production.

I've also been pretty clear on what I wanted and was willing to risk. So far I've been happy with what I've gotten for my KS money. Haven't used Indiegogo though.

How can this possibly be a single poll the way you worded it?

I don't tend to back stuff that involves physical products.

For me, it's more for supporting artsy-fartsy projects people make.
I have backed RPG rules in the past, I tend to avoid ones that require manufacturing a bunch of stuff.

OK
1)First it must be interesting and have a physical product--I am not into backing software or pdf's. Good price point/value. If it is an unknown as opposed to an established brand---then please take the time to have a good write up, photos and….good grammar/spelling
2) Some delays, some well before projected time, and one or two were just cancelled without very good reasons. I have backed 40+ projects.
3) I prefer Kickstarter---as they are at least trying to establish some small amount of consumer protection--I have used Indiegogo twice and the well known brand delivered and the unknown brand walked away with my $$
4) I will back anything that is interesting--more so if the physical reward is cool--miniatures, board games, books, comic books, film festivals, school programs, laser cutters and a wood working shop---but mostly miniatures

At work we had a kickstarter and it just barely got funded. But it worked! So based on that one experience, I like it.

So far so good. The least tangible was Roll20 which has been quite successful.

Reaper has been good as has Bunch of Balloons

How can this possibly be a single poll the way you worded it?

I leave that for the editor(s) to sort out as they see fit. However, given the off-topic of many comments on TMP (or any online message system) it seems best to keep the topic "as broad as possible."