Ask Slashdot: At What Point Has a Kickstarter Project Failed?

skywiseguy writes "I have only used Kickstarter to back a single project so far, but one of the backers of that project pointed us to a project promising video capable glasses which was once one of the top 10 highest funded projects in Kickstarter history. After reading through the comments, it is obvious that the project has not met its expected deadline of 'Winter 2011,' but the project team rarely gives any updates with concrete information. All emails sent to them by backers get a form letter in reply, they routinely delete negative comments from their Facebook page, and apparently very soon after the project was funded, they posted pictures of themselves on a tropical beach with the tagline, 'We are not on a beach in Thailand.' Their early promotions were featured on Engadget and other tech sites but since the project was funded they've rarely, if ever, communicated in more than a form letter. So at what point can a project like this be considered to have failed? And if you had backed a project with this kind of lack of communication from the project team, what would you consider to be the best course of action? Disclaimer: I have not backed this project, but I am very interested in funding Kickstarter projects and I do not want to get caught sending money to a less than reputable project. According to the above project's backers, Kickstarter claims to have no mechanism for refunding money to backers of failed projects and no way to hold the project team accountable to their backers. This does not seem like a healthy environment for someone who is averse to giving their money to scam artists."

Re:Contractual obligations

[Anonymous Coward]

Wasn't that projected delivery date around the same as the Raspberry Pi's one?

Re:Contractual obligations

[ArsenneLupin]

Actually, the glasses do exist, they're just being held up by customs because they lag a CE sign...

Re:Welcome to the real world

[Anonymous Coward]

I suggest a new mod category.
+1 incomprehensible

Re:Contractual obligations

[dzfoo]

Failure to do so, is a mistake on my part.

Then I'll blame you. Next time I fail to provide status update on a project and get called on it, I'll say, "my failure to do so is a mistake on jellomizer's part."

          -dZ.