2016.05.23 Commentary on Kickstarter's Terms of Service as it Pertains to Ken "Whit" Whitman's KS "Funding"

This post is a bit of a repeat in that Jolly Blackburn posted this basic Kickstarter information on some of Ken "Whit" Whitman's Kickstarter comments.

While he posted the information without commentary, we won't. Not everyone with a vested interest in d20 Entertainment's unfulfilled promises are going to see Jolly's (I hope he doesn't mind if we pretend to be on a familiar enough basis to use 1st names) post.

While most people focus on the almost $200K Ken "Whit" Whitman scammed gleaned from Kickstarter, there is an untold fortune in off-books sales of books, KenzerCo products, and resin that easily gets glossed over. Of course this post is in regards to Kickstarter's own terms of use. We've highlighted the simple fact that Kickstarter should be held accountable for violating their own rules, but just like Ken "Whit" Whitman's off-book sales all this is often overlooked.

Jolly's post is from Kickstarter's Terms of Use, item #4 (How Projects Work). We've copied the formatting as it was presented. Any emphasis on our part, mostly for commentary, will look like this (1):

"When a project is successfully funded, the creator must complete the project and fulfill each reward. Once a creator has done so, they’ve satisfied their obligation to their backers.

Throughout the process, creators owe their backers a high standard of effort, honest communication, and a dedication to bringing the project to life.(1) At the same time, backers must understand that when they back a project, they’re helping to create something new — not ordering something that already exists. There may be changes or delays, and there’s a chance something could happen that prevents the creator from being able to finish the project as promised.

If a creator is unable (2) to complete their project and fulfill rewards, they’ve failed to live up to the basic obligations of this agreement. To right this, they must make every reasonable effort to find another way of bringing the project to the best possible conclusion for backers. A creator in this position has only remedied the situation and met their obligations to backers if:

• they post an update that explains what work has been done, how funds were used, and what prevents them from finishing the project as planned;(3)
• they work diligently and in good faith to bring the project to the best possible conclusion in a timeframe that’s communicated to backers;(4)
• they’re able to demonstrate that they’ve used funds appropriately and made every reasonable effort to complete the project as promised; (5)
• they’ve been honest, and have made no material misrepresentations in their communication to backers; and (5)
• they offer to return any remaining funds to backers who have not received their reward (in proportion to the amounts pledged), or else explain how those funds will be used to complete the project in some alternate form.(6)

The creator is solely responsible for fulfilling the promises made in their project. If they’re unable to satisfy the terms of this agreement, they may be subject to legal action (7) by backers."

1) Ken "Whit" Whitman has been anything but honest or dedicated. He has openly admitted to co-mingling funds from different projects and people have figured out many of his lies. There are literally too many to post & link to in one post.

2) Or simply unwilling. See any post regarding Pencil Dice and/or Deck Dice

3) While there have been some communication regarding certain project delays, there has been no accounting on how funds were used and what work has been done. There have been multiple excuses as to why projects haven't been completed, including several of "Jolly Blackburn has interfered with my ability to raise more funds"

4) In short, nothing regarding these projects has been done "in good faith"

5) See comment #3

6) Ken "Whit" Whitman probably never had any intention to refund backers. He has publicly stated he is "broke" while also admitting he has made little money from life in general, yet he has claimed to spend large sums of personal money (as in upwards of 133% of his annual income) not only on Kickstarter projects, but also on developing new projects.

7) We would posit that this tidbit is actually a part of Ken "Whit" Whitman's business model. Use Kickstarter scams to swindle a lot of people out of relatively small amounts of money, as-in less money than those scammed would have to spend on lawyers & lawsuits to get their investments back.