Life is riddled with a procession of minor impediments

[Proudhuff]

This thread is better than Eastenders anyday 

[TordelBack]

I hear a number of the writers are lurkers.  Remember the time Ian Beale wiped his arse with a slug?  No coincidence.

[SmallBlueThing]

Because im two fifths of the way through Black Hawk The Intergalactic Gladiator, he's just been zapped off to the alien arena and is about to fight the ravenous bugblatter beast from traal or whatever- a space dinosaur drawn by fill-in artist ramon sola- and yet i cant for the life of me forget the heartfelt and confused "Skree? Skree?" uttered by his poor, abandoned, bird as she flew in little circles around the place her nubian gladiator pal had been until a moment ago.

I cant remember anything about this strip- do black hawk and his hawk ever get back together? Their parting left me quite sad.

SBT

[Hoagy]

Not that I can remember. I too feel your pain as far as the Hawk's departure was concerned.

[Tiplodocus]

Another hour on the phone to TalkTalk customer services.  The individuals genuinely do seem like they are trying to help but they are backed by systems and scripts that don't appear to be able to deal with the slightest variation from the norm.  I'd have never willingly joined them but when they swallowed Pipex(almost as bad) we got pulled across.

[staticgirl]

I hope Emp's ear is getting better. That sounds horrid.

I have been trying to build a new bicycle. It's a bottom of the line folding bike and the instructions are for an entirely different type of bike completely. I've used a lot of lateral thinking and I've almost got to the end. I just have to fix the lights, check the breaks and figure out the foldy mechanisim. I have NO idea how the bike is supposed to fold and the instructions are for a non-folding mountain bike.

I had to stop because my back felt like it was going to snap in two and my head was thumping. The air had turned blue too. I'll have another go at finishing tomorrow.

(It's quite cute - a silver colour. I've called it Frankie after Frankie Valli. He did a song called Silver Star in the 70s which occasionally occupies my brain and refuses to leave.)

[Rog69]

Another hour on the phone to TalkTalk customer services.  The individuals genuinely do seem like they are trying to help but they are backed by systems and scripts that don't appear to be able to deal with the slightest variation from the norm.  I'd have never willingly joined them but when they swallowed Pipex(almost as bad) we got pulled across.

I'm a customer of theirs too (unfortunately they are the only ADSL2+ provider on my exchange) and I've always found their support forums are a better way to contact them for technical help, it seems to bypass the first line support completely.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

This is not an anti-kickstarter project rant - I'm not opposed to the idea in the least.

But I drew one illustration for a short-story anthology. It's got to be eighty pages max, black and white. The author has suggested it will cost $4000 dollars to print.

"The funds raised through Kickstarter will be broken down accordingly:

• $3,370 will go towards printing the books (500+), shipping and handling, and setting up distribution.
• $750 will go toward promotional items (bookmarks, t-shirts and posters).
• $130 will go toward setting up Hance LLC as a legal entity." Wait, WHAT?

He's e-mailed all contributors every day since he set it up - unfeasibly it's already got $2000. I've written to him saying "good luck, please remove me from your mailing list I don't need to hear about this every day." He said fair enough. I'm still getting them - I've even routed his address straight to my rubbish folder.

I'm partially bitter of course, but I couldn't bring myself to beg like that about something that wasn't for charity or something. Just strikes me as outrageously greedy!

[staticgirl]

I've just said no to an art gig and feel bad. He was even offering to pay too (and has already paid for me for another job) but I haven't touched my own comic since November. I wish I had more energy and could draw faster. He's a good bloke and I feel bad about letting him down. Gah.

[The Legendary Shark]

It is better to say no than to promise something you won't have time to deliver. Don't feel bad - feel good for being honest.

[Emperor]

I'm partially bitter of course, but I couldn't bring myself to beg like that about something that wasn't for charity or something. Just strikes me as outrageously greedy!

It's a tricky one.

I think there is some resistance to this kind of thing on our side of the Pond as it just doesn't feel very... British However, I have got over that and think that projects like Kickstarter are very important.

If we look at comics, you could, for example, use this for a pre-sales system (as seems to be the case here), which allows you to fund the printing in the knowledge that you have guaranteed sales. If people are interested in some of the extra incentives (like getting your name in the book or some merchandise) then no one is twisting their arm. I look at projects like Gutsville and Phonogram, and think how Kickstarter would have helped keep the wheels on such efforts, which in turn, helps sales.

It is even more important in film these days - at this year's Sundance Festival Kickstarter has funded 17 of the films being shown there, which shows how important it is for independent cinema (which is great in this era of blockbusters demanding 100s of millions of dollars to hammer out dull sequels). Back in the day the makers of small films would have ask around friends and family and/or to bust their hump to track down the individuals with disposable income they'd be up for risking on a film (dentists and doctors were popular - Evil Dead was funded by them, for example) or do riskier things like take out a bunch of credit cards and max out the credit or test drugs on yourself:

www.totalfilm.com/features/7-weird-ways-to-fund-a-low-budget-movie

The beauty of crowd sourcing your funding is that you get access to more people who might not want to contribute as much as the backers from years ago but you make up for that in the numbers. So I can't see Kickstarter's importance fading any time soon, although I do wonder about "Kickstarter fatigue", however, each new project drags in new people so it keeps snowballing.

Of course, it isn't for everyone so I'm not trying to argue you round but it does make funding worthy projects easier and is only going to become more important in the future, so it isn't going away.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

All I'm saying is that with that particular project it seems like he's asking for a lot and QUITE A LOT - I'm not arguing against kickstarter it's a bloody marvellous idea.

If I had the stones to do it I would... $2000 would pay for... five hundred or so issues of Dr WTF

[TordelBack]

I've ended up quasi-compulsorily on one of those there unemployment courses, allegedly aimed at improving my whoring skills (with the-piss-artist-formerly-known-as-FÁS, for my Irish chums).  This means, somewhat inevitably, that I spent the morning explaining what I thought my strengths (lovemaking of unusual intensity and duration, obviously) and weaknesses (no discrimination with the distribution of said lovemaking), and the afternoon ranking items in order of importance to jungle-plane-crash-survival (nobody else felt the rum should be No. 1).  Oh, and three trips to the subsidised canteen. 

Meanwhile, childcare for the day cost me €50 for one kid and invaluable grandparent goodwill for the other.  It's a day a week for 8 weeks, so that's €400 minimum, and unspecified amounts of domestic labour, it's going to cost me.  I'm unemployed for f***'s sake - indeed I had to be for at least 6 months to qualify.  My dole is €12 short of my half of the mortgage every week as it is. 

If I'm paying that kind of money I want more than 20 idiots preparing for a debate on why the second mouse is wiser than the early bird.  I want something that'll get me a f***ing job.

[The Legendary Shark]

Do not question the indoctrination.
Embrace the mindset.

Be pliant.
Be durable.
Be productive.

And Above All: Consume.

Right, now back to work the lot of you.

[Albion]

Be pliant.
Be durable.
Be productive.

You sound like an alternate universe Torquemada.