Before we started posting our source code on GitHub, someone (a Kickstarter backer) called my team… well, a word inferring we were fathered illegitimately. The word slipped by Kickstarter’s swear word filter. In context, he was inferring we were defrauding backers with delays from upstream technical partners.
Post-upload (and now satisfied we are delivering as promised. since our code is now on GitHub), he/she calms down and starts asking relevant questions. I answered them myself, but I think this opens up a new community-management topic. How do you handle backers that become abusive?
Backers are more than customers – they’ve made (at least an emotional) investment in your project. Kickstarter doesn’t let us mute them, even if they sour, particularly even if they become abusive.
I fear if we just let backers become abusive when things become rocky, that it sets a bad precedent. Those makers also need to aim for an It’s a Wonderful Life outcome too, especially when things get really bad. So do we act like Jimmy Stewart – or do we pull out the banhammer?
The best line that I can posit to walk is an infirm one – Outreach, try to assuage personally, and then use the banhammer as a last resort. I have no problem with criticism, particularly if it’s constructive… but just because someone chipped in to a Kickstarter, doesn’t give them permission to be abusive. And if needed, makers should have the power to put it to a stop.
Update: I’ve posted a follow-up article here.
and that maybe why backers got abusive….
and your github stuff is nothing but an image of android-x86 who you
slammed as being no good in your “automatically” initial comparison
chart…..
you reap what you sow….
@jdwiley – Please don’t post on my blog anymore. You continue to post things that are just not true, and baseless claims about me, and my team. I routinely have to delete inflammatory, off-topics posts from you – and further, appear to have possibly coordinated trying to post personal, private-and-direct contact details of Console team members.
You also seem to go by the name “rbg” and others, based on IP history.
It’s cyberstalking. And frankly, it’s really creepy.
While only about 70% of our code is on GitHub at the moment, you are free to run a diff between Console OS and Android-x86. There are too many differences for me to even bother entertaining your ridiculous claims further.
There can no longer be claims we’ve “ripped off” one project or the other. Console OS is an Android-compatible fork that is blending Android-x86 and Android-IA. You can now literally compare line-for-line what is in Console OS and the other relevant projects. You can see where we’re different, and you can see where we’re the same.
Further, we have posted a list (sent to our Kickstarter backers) of the future components that we expect to stage over the next 90 days – components that parallel what shipped in Console OS KitKat, as well as new components we’ve developed and partner to offer. Except when we’re not allowed, we hope to post 100% of them to GitHub, at least in binary form.