As a connoisseur since childhood of pretty much anything with the phrases “Making-of” or “Behind the Scenes” in the title, I find a well-structured Kickstarter campaign to be essentially irresistible. The appeal for me lies not just in the act of helping something I want to see exist become a reality, but also in the fact that the “Making-of” is built-in: along the way I’ll receive regular updates on progress, ostensibly offering transparency into what’s going well and what isn’t. So yes: for contextual purposes, I would self-identify as a Kickstarter addict.
Depending on whether or not you’ve also been absent-mindedly backing the occasional Kickstarter campaign as they appeared on your radar over the course of the past few years, you may or may not be aware of a bonus holiday that’s emerging right in the middle of your already-hectic late-December calendar: Kickstarter Christmas. I first noticed this phenomenon on a Friday in late December of last year. That morning, I woke up to an inbox packed with an unusual number of updates from projects that I had backed, and as the day wore on, they didn’t stop appearing — even more trickled in over the next few days.
This makes perfect sense, of course: it’s the aggregate effect of lots of creative people, to whom you have at some point sent money, deciding that if they are going to spend the waning days of their year relaxing in good conscience, they should either finish off their Kickstarter project, or give a detailed accounting of their progress. For those of us who are in it at least partially for the procedural ride, this avalanche of self-imposed deadlines is like a flood of little presents to unwrap.
I should clarify that in my experience, these updates weren’t just regrets from overly-optimistic project-runners who had intended to deliver in time for their rewards to be given as gifts. Sure, there were some of those, but there were also a few “Surprise! your reward is on it’s way!” updates, which are the best. The bulk of the updates were substantive year-end accountings of the project status, and I’m not sure if that’s indicative of my impeccable taste in projects, or if it simply reflects the generally-high level of accountability that has been placed on those running Kickstarter campaigns as the platform has matured. Either way, I’ll take it.
In much the same way that more-established holidays have ballooned to exceed the bounds of their allotted calendar date, the “Kickstarter Christmas” period seems to span a range of days. Based on my own anecdotal observations, it’s centered on the last Friday before the 25th of December – so December 20th this year. I’m hoping that my backlog of long-running projects, coupled with twelve more months’ worth of accumulated backings will yield another flood of delicious procedural updates this week.
Obviously, the more projects you’ve backed, the more pronounced the effect is. If you also notice your inbox filling up with Kickstarter project updates this week, take a moment to bask in the fact that you’ve chosen to give some of your money to creative people who are responsible enough to make sure that everyone knows they’re still working on making something awesome on behalf of their backers. That’s the true meaning of Kickstarter Christmas…
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