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Comment by arpit | Hacker News Reader

A lot of my other opinions have already been brought up so I won't restate them, but I further don't understand why you didn't use KickStarter? I dont know enough about your funding system to trust it with my money or info. KS has built a reputation and I trust I won't be charged in case the project goes under (not to mention you miss out on any network effects).

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From the page:

"Why aren't you using Kickstarter?

We wish we could, we <3 Kickstarter. Unfortunately, the Kickstarter Terms Of Service explicitly prohibits raising money for this kind of service. "

I can't see exactly where this project would be prohibited.

http://www.kickstarter.com/help/guidelines

Item 1 says in part:

>> A project is not open-ended. Starting a business, for example, does not qualify as a project.

He's starting a business.

"Projects, projects, projects. As in all categories, Kickstarter is for projects that can be completed, not things that require maintenance to exist. This means no e-commerce sites, web businesses, or social networking sites. (Yes, this means Kickstarter wouldn’t be allowed on Kickstarter. Funny, but true.)"

How is Penny-Arcade's Kickstarter allowed then? (Not disagreeing, but it seems like they would run afoul of this if it were actually enforced.)

They treat it as a funding for the project of "no ads for a year" rather than "pay to take ads off penny arcade"

I suspect this rule is open to interpretation. They've allowed MMORPG projects of various sorts (Your World, Pathfinder Online). Those certainly would/will have ongoing maintenance to continue existing.

It's likely all in how it's framed. There's probably a way to get this on KS if that's what is truly desired.

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