Referral Program issues with Kickstarter are just "mixed signals"

ArchivedUser

http://www.mmogames.com/gamenews/confusion-spawned-ashes-creation-referral-program-report/

Link to the full story above.

An update on the story would later be made, with further clarification from Kickstarter’s Director of Communications David Gallagher:

“The information I gave you is accurate, except, as I recently learned, the part where I said that this creator had excluded Kickstarter pledges from their referral program.

[Intrepid Studios] told us that Kickstarter pledges would be removed from the program, making it entirely separate from the Kickstarter project, which we saw as an acceptable solution. It appears that this did not happen. [Intrepid Studios] said this week that based on [their] communication with us, [they] believed it was fine to continue to include pledges. That was not correct.”

So in the end the referral program was against Kickstarter rules, although since the KS is over they can not really do anything about it except clarify their own language in the ToS.

I do not believe the referral program is a scam but it is an albatross hanging around Intrepid Studios neck and is not needed.  This will not be the last time the referral program is brought up in a shady light and will be a problem of IS's making continuing forward.  I personally do not understand the level of blind buy in they have with the system and the monetization need.

The article is interesting but all in all a little flat as I would like to hear IS's side of things.  Again I do not believe the referral system is a scam, it just leaves the impression of one.  Especially when you have people potentially generating money (though not very much from the look of it) from spamming "referral links" everywhere, which is what scammers with referral links due.

ArchivedUser

http://www.mmogames.com/gamenews/confusion-spawned-ashes-creation-referral-program-report/

Link to full story above and the quote from KS below:

An update on the story would later be made, with further clarification from Kickstarter’s Director of Communications David Gallagher:

“The information I gave you is accurate, except, as I recently learned, the part where I said that this creator had excluded Kickstarter pledges from their referral program.

[Intrepid Studios] told us that Kickstarter pledges would be removed from the program, making it entirely separate from the Kickstarter project, which we saw as an acceptable solution. It appears that this did not happen. [Intrepid Studios] said this week that based on [their] communication with us, [they] believed it was fine to continue to include pledges. That was not correct.”

I do not understands IS's vision on the referral program and its intended usage with the amount of bad press it receives, it is more like an albatross than a feature.  The system as per KS violated their ToS, going forward every time someone brings forth a complaint this will no doubt be referenced.  The article it self is a little flat all in all and I would like to hear Intrepids side of things.

For the record I do not believe the referral system is a scam (it is not) but due to the monetization aspect and how scammers spam links (to scam you) from an outside perspective it will still be looked at like one.