Right. Which makes this more of a campaign or cause thread than a discussion of the movie itself.
In which case there’s not much point in opening the thread now; the movie is in production and may not get finished or may be a long way off.
This one didn’t. It was about the Kickstarter campaign.
Why not start a new one that’s about the actual movie instead of the way the movie is funded? That wouldn’t require our permission and anybody could do it at any time. If you want to post a thread that involves suggesting people donate to a campaign of some type, we want people to go through us.
In that example you’re not trying to get the poster to buy anything. The poster has already stated his intent to the part and you’re suggesting someplace he can get it. Again, we’ve always allowed this. We don’t actually have to revisit every old decision just because someone asks a question about something new.
In the OP he says he threw in some money towards it. Seemed, to me at least, the OP was about bringing attention that the movie exists AND that a fundraising effort exists. He endorses the fundraising by saying he contributed to it. Not the most egregious example but not the most subtle either.
Yeah? People mention that they bought, are buying or plan to buy stuff all the time on this board. If a thread were nothing but a plug for a kickstarter, then that’s a problem, but the thread under discussion was clearly about the movie. I see no difference between a kickstarter for a movie to be made and buying the DVD afterwards anymore than there’s a difference between pre-ordering a game and buying it a month after it comes out.
I’m not arguing against either. Posters can start threads about Kickstarter campaigns or ask for money - they just have to ask us for permission first. I already mentioned this upthread, but ultrafilter’s thread was called “Kickstarter for a documentary on James Randi.” And here’s the OP:
The title of the movie was linked to the Kickstarter site.
[QUOTE=Inner Stickler]
Because ultrafilter’s thread was clearly about the actual movie.
[/QUOTE]
I’m not seeing it. The title of the thread had Kickstarter in it, he linked to the Kickstarter page, and his description of the movie - the only bit that was “about the actual movie” - was taken from the Kickstarter site. And I’d like to emphasize here that I’m not suggesting ultrafilter was spamming or anything and we probably haven’t made it clear how we were going to handle threads like this. But yes, this was a thread about the funding of the movie, and it would have been better to ask us before posting it.
That’s a different argument from saying the thread is not about the Kickstarter campaign, which seemed to be what you were saying before. And it doesn’t affect the question of how we moderate threads about these kinds of fundraising efforts. In point of fact there’s a whole website for the movie and everything. You can see a trailer and read up on Randi’s life story, and (if you’re a fan of his) you can talk about what subjects or incidents you would want them to see in the movie or who would make a good interview subject, for example. So yes, it would be possible to talk about the movie without focusing on Kickstarter. The thread that got closed didn’t do that.
My chief thought about this is that the funding of something via Kickstarter is a legitimate topic that’s worthy of discussion as an interesting subject in its own right. Crowdsourcing is the future and I could see a lot of interesting talk on the progress a project has made towards its goal. At least when we’re talking about projects by established/bonafide artists.
We’re not debating the merit of the project – which is great, no doubt about it.
We’re just saying if you want to link to or publicize these projects on the Straight Dope Message Board we want to see it first and approve it.
That’s how we’ve always been here, nothing is new, nothing has changed.
We are not ascribing anything to ultrafilter neither; we’re sure he had the best of intentions.
Crowdfunding is a movement that will no doubt grow; for a lot of situations it’s maybe the only way creative work will get operating capital. (It’s also proving to be a nifty charitable device as well.) We’re not against it, just want to have some control over it.
I’d answered your objections already. But this does resolve the question of whether you’re interested in this issue or just wasting time. I release you from your obligation to argue about this. Go and be free!
Aren’t you the guy who deliberately broke a rule in the Pit and then reported the infraction yourself. I guess the difference is you didn’t apologise fir that.
I disagree. If Czarcasm’s personal opnion on the use of the phrase ‘it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission’ is relevant, then pointing out his potential hypocrisy is just as relevant.
