The Muddy Truth About Kickstarter 'Staff Picks'

szczys writes: Crowd Funding is the wild-wild west of business financing, and it's not just the people starting campaigns that are playing without many rules. One of Kickstarter's sort algorithm triggers is the "Staff Pick." Research indicates being featured by Kickstarter staff is a huge predictor for success. But there is no published benchmark for how these are chosen. Oddly, Kickstarter only discourages users from falsely labeling their campaign as a Staff Pick. To protect backers and ensure the crowdfunding ecosystem isn't sullied by scammers, Kickstarter needs to boost their transparency starting with this Staff Pick conundrum.

Comments

It's...a staff pick.

[American AC in Paris]

When things are chosen by a "staff pick", the staff of a particular organization picks things they think look interesting. That's...the whole deal.

It's not a subjective process. It's also not a new process. Your local book, record and video stores, back when such things still existed, did this. Your local liquor store does this. This has concept has been around for ages.

The only thing that Kickstarter has to do with this entire concept is that they're one of countless organizations that do this.