SHADOW: An impassioned plea from the creator

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Maybe it’s me, but the spiritual mystery, awe, and fascination pervading the marketing for this product screams scam.  Needless to say, the following email did not help:

Hello Dopkicker,

What started as an idea in my head has now become something very real and we would be nothing without you. My deepest appreciation for your pledge, it really means the world to us.

Once we hit our goal we want to break records, the more we raise the faster we can build. Please help by supporting any of the initiatives below.

Initiative 01 | Share with dreamers
Find other dreamers, tell them about the project and encourage them to support the idea, if we want to build the worlds largest dream data base we need the world to be involved.

Initiative 02 | Find Me
Find me on facebook | hunter lee soik and be my friend ;] or support or FB page here | https://www.facebook.com/discovershadow. You’ll get all the info in real time and can share from there.

Initiative 03 | Thunderclap
This service is super cool and helps small organizations get out big messages.  You sign up with your social media links and on October 4th at 11am EST everyone message will get released at the same time.

Here’s how to join
THUNDERCLAP | http://bit.ly/15PK9ID
01 sign up or sign in
02 click social network work with most reach
03 then click the 2nd and 3rd, for example if you start with FB, then do twitter or tumblr next.
04 Sit back and watch what happens on October 4th at 11am. The first time we did this it was really awesome to see all the posts trend immediately.

Again, huge thank you and I leave you with this quote from -Margaret Mead

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Sleep Well,

-hunter lee soik

If you have any questions please feel free to call me at [REDACTED]

(Except for removing the author’s phone number, the above is copied verbatim, including the typo on line 1.)

The false flattery (I’m sure my $1 pledge does not actually “mean the world to you”) and chain letter-like pressure to indoctrinate your “social network” feels downright sleazy.  Meanwhile, there’s no additional information about the product or what it will do.  (“The more we raise the faster we can build”…what, exactly?)  I wish I could claim to be surprised.

Incidentally, I’m pretty sure this email was composed by hand – I’m not aware of any mechanism in Kickstarter to automagically email new backers.

{ 4 comments to read ... please submit one more! }

  1. Hello OccamsChainsaw,

    This is a letter i wrote and personalize and send to all our backer to let them know how appreciative i am for their contribution. SHADOW is a very big deal to us and we choose to crowd fund so that the user knows we care about protecting their privacy and data and can use SHADOW and a tool to find patterns with in their own dreams.

    Feel free to call me at 01 917 515 3647, the reason I gave my personal cell to all the backer is cause I want them to know I’m here 24/7 to answer and questions.

    Please get in touch and thanks for your honest message.

    Best,

    -h

    • Thank you for your comment. Can you explain the relationship between crowdfunding and protecting user data, because it’s not immediately clear to me how one follows from the other.

      While we’re on the subject of privacy and data security, there isn’t much detail in your campaign. Can you tell us specifically what data you track and how it’s protected from unauthorized access?

  2. There are outside-of-Kickstarter tools to let you manage new backers, etc., and email them automatically or on a timer, yada-yada. These tools are usually free or cheap and their use is becoming more widespread, which is not necessarily an un-good thing.

    • I’m glad to hear it – that makes this whole thing considerably less creepy. Would you mind linking to one or two?

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