Are Paypal donations to be counted on Kickstarter page?

[aratuk]

With Paypal contributions coming online tomorrow, I'm curious what mechanism will be used to keep track of Paypal in relation to the fundraising total displayed on the Kickstarter page. From what I see, Kickstarter's documentation says that "[their] payment processor is Amazon" — full stop — so is there a box somewhere where the organizers of a Kickstarter can enter amounts of money received from bake sales, panhandling, "escort services," Paypal, or other outside means?

 

Will we be able to see the contributions from Paypal in the displayed total, or will there just have to be periodic updates done manually (external to Kickstarter)?

 

I apologize if this question has been addressed elsewhere, but I've read all the updates and searched the forum.

Edited October 2, 2012 by aratuk

[Ieo]

I'm curious what mechanism will be used to keep track of Paypal donations in relation to the fundraising total displayed on the Kickstarter page. From what I see, Kickstarter's documentation says that "[their] payment processor is Amazon" — full stop — so is there a box somewhere where the organizers of a Kickstarter can enter amounts of money received from bake sales, panhandling, "escort services," Paypal, or other outside means?

 

Will we be able to see the contributions from Paypal in the displayed total, or will there just have to be periodic updates done manually?

 

I apologize if this question has been addressed elsewhere, but I've read all the updates and searched the forum.

 

The only quote I found of relevance is on Obsidian's Eternity page:

 

Are my PayPal donations applied to the Kickstarter funding goal?

 

Unfortunately no. PayPal donations do NOT count toward our Kickstarter funding goals. PayPal donations will still receive the appropriate tier rewards however. Kickstarter is our primary method for funding the project; if it doesn't hit it's funding goal, even if we have PayPal donations that would bring it over the goal, the Kickstarter will still go unfunded.

[Infinitron]

No, in Wasteland 2, the sum of Paypal pledges was not automagically added to the number displayed on Kickstarter. I assume the same will be the case here.

Edited October 2, 2012 by Infinitron

[Keyrock]

PayPal donations will not count toward the Kickstarter funding goal, however this is a moot point since that goal was passed a long time a go. The way I've seen this for other projects is that they have a tally adding up the Kickstarter generated funding & the Paypal generated funding on their own site (sometimes this is also linked/embedded on the Kickstarter page) and this total is what is compared against the stretch goals. I think (and hope) that's how Project Eternity will handle it.

Edited October 2, 2012 by Keyrock

[Aedelric]

It will still count to stretch goals though.

[aratuk]

PayPal donations will not count toward the Kickstarter funding goal, however this is a moot point since that goal was passed a long time a go.

 

It's not moot if a prospective contributor cares about the stretch goals.

 

Plus, there's a greater degree of accountability when the total amount of money contributed can be seen. I don't think we have to worry about shoddy or shady accounting practices from Obsidian, but frankly I'm surprised that Kickstarter's terms allow links to outside payment services, especially since Kickstarter itself collects 5%.

 

It will still count to stretch goals though.

 

What I'm asking is how this is kept track of.

Edited October 2, 2012 by aratuk

[Keyrock]

What I'm asking is how this is kept track of.

 

The way I've seen this for other projects is that they have a tally adding up the Kickstarter generated funding & the Paypal generated funding on their own site (sometimes this is also linked/embedded on the Kickstarter page) and this total is what is compared against the stretch goals. I think (and hope) that's how Project Eternity will handle it.

So basically what I expect is to see a counter adding up the Kickstarter and Paypal donations somewhere on eternity.obsidian.net

[Vargr Raekr]

I have contributed to several Kickstarter projects. Paypal donations have never been included in the tally figure on the project page. In every project I have experience with, however, the organizers have upheld stretch goals if the Kickstarter pledges plus the Paypal donations are sufficient. One good recent example is the Broken Sword Kkickstarter; they had about $770 000 in donations from the Kickstarter page, but the paypal donations were enough to put the project over 800 000, and thus the organizers upheld the $800 000 stretch goal.

 

I don't know about Kickstarter's TOS regarding upholding promised goals with third party funding. It may be just a matter of trust. They likely allow third party funding because they know that not everyone out there can make credit card payments to Amazon in support of a project, and by forbidding services like Paypal would force project organizers onto competing sites like Indegogo (which already has the advantage of organizers being able to collect pledge money whether or not they meet the base target of the project.)

[Althernai]

What I'm asking is how this is kept track of.

There are no publicly available counters like with Kickstarter. We'll just have to trust Obsidian to be honest about the total funding and the number of backers.

[Robsidious]

Obsidian could, I think should, do something like this:

 

http://revolution.co.uk/kickstarter/paypal

[Adam Brennecke]

We will be keeping everyone updated on the number of donations, and the amount of money donated through PayPal. The numbers will contribute to The Endless Paths Mega Dungeon size and to the stretch goals. So far it looks like we are going to manually update the numbers, and the team is going to be looking at ways of presenting this in the next day or two.

 

Thanks!

[Hiro Protagonist II]

They'll probably add it at the end of the campaign with the amount of money and backers through Paypal. But it would be good if you could see it on the Kickstarter page everyday.

 

edit. That's what happens when you step away from your desk in mid-type. Thanks for the update Adam.

Edited October 4, 2012 by Hiro Protagonist II

[nikolokolus]

We will be keeping everyone updated on the number of donations, and the amount of money donated through PayPal. The numbers will contribute to The Endless Paths Mega Dungeon size and to the stretch goals. So far it looks like we are going to manually update the numbers, and the team is going to be looking at ways of presenting this in the next day or two.

 

Thanks!

 

Cool. Thanks for responding Adam. Loving the way this thing is shaping up.

[Robsidious]

Sweeet.

 

Thanks Adam

[Gyges]

Much obliged Adam. By the way, how does it feel being free to communicate more with the fans? Lost your faith in humanity yet?

Edited October 4, 2012 by Gyges

[septembervirgin]

When do we see the levels added through Paypal?

 

We will be keeping everyone updated on the number of donations, and the amount of money donated through PayPal. The numbers will contribute to The Endless Paths Mega Dungeon size and to the stretch goals. So far it looks like we are going to manually update the numbers, and the team is going to be looking at ways of presenting this in the next day or two.

 

Thanks!