Kickstart the GNUstep Project
I'm sorry to be a downer, but there needs to be a reality check, because future open source projects can learn a thing or two from this.<p>This project is unlikely to be successfully funded.  In fact, "unlikely" is a mild word for just how unlikely it is to succeed.<p>Problem #1 - No clear value demonstration to the end user.  The video is... not very good.  The primary reason it's not very good is because it's asking people to read.  People react instinctively to faces, to the sound of a person's voice, and to feeling connected with them.  It's no coincidence that virtually every successful Kickstarter campaign contains monologues by their campaign creators.  Thus, while there may be a value proposition embedded somewhere in the video, it's probably lost on most people who watch it because they just aren't really identifying with what is being presented.<p>Problem #2 - a $25 minimum price point.  The gamedev industry has repeatedly proven that by enabling people to contribute $5 and $10, you reap about 20-40% more income than you otherwise would have.  This truth isn't restricted to the domain of gamedev.  The evidence for this is that virtually every successful Kickstarter project has low-tier contribution levels, often contributing a significant amount to the bottom-line of projects that aren't going to deliver a tangible product.  E.g. this may not be so important for projects like Soylent, where the end-user will receive something tangible, but it's pretty important for most projects that weren't set up with the goal of taking preorders.<p>Problem #3 - Too high of a threshold for funding.  $50k is not reasonable when the value proposition is so unclear.  I could see this project reaching $5k or maybe even $10k.  But it's not reasonable to calculate how much it would cost you to work on it, and then use that as the funding goal.  "What would the crowds be willing to pay?" takes priority over "How much would this cost me in terms of my time, and what is my time worth?"