BackerClub Forums

Someone had asked what were the criteria for each rank in the Club. Great question!

Here they are:
1 Star Member: 50-74 backed projects
2 Star Member: 75-99 backed projects
3 Star Member: 100-249 backed projects
4 Star Member: 250-399 backed projects
5 Star Member: 400-549 backed projects
6 Star Member: 550-699 backed projects
7 Star Member: 700+ backed projects

Mark - Co-Founder

Could you also tell us more about what the ranks mean? What benefits the various ranks bring other than the lounge spins?

Also I feel something is a bit not right.

If you pledge for $1. You've considered to pledge one project.

But what about for those who have pledge bigger amount and lesser project?

I mean I can randomly make $1 pledge for 700 projects to become a 7 Star Member. It's only $700.

I just feel something is not right. What you guys think?

My husband, looking at our credit card bill, would say that I spend plenty whether it's backing a couple small projects heavily or a few hundred projects at $1 each over a year. So yeah I'm moving through the ranks faster now that I'm spending less per project. That also means I'm promoting more projects, and if things go the way they should, bringing more backers and money to more projects than when I'm only backing a few at higher pledge levels.

Benefits of rank: From what I can tell we get chances to win prizes among others in our rankings. Those at higher rankings likely have fewer to compete against. Sometimes higher rank might get bigger/better prizes. I think it was a $10 difference between levels 1-2 and 3-4 during November's "spin the wheel" but I could be misremembering.

Some people come into the club having higher rank than others. When the first few introductions went up I felt pretty low on the backer side although I know most members are not active on the forums. But it's not a competition. Maybe I'm looking at this from a woman's perspective? If I were a man would it be obvious it is a competition?

Membership is free. We get a number of benefits as members. Extra perks on some projects. Previewing projects - having input before projects go live. When I contact creators I'm taken more seriously as a Backerclub member. Occasionally contests to win money to use on Kickstarter or win swag. Meet others who back lots of projects who share our enthusiasm. A chance to share our favorite current campaigns with people likely to back because they are in the group. A place to talk about frustrations, ask for advice, learn more about how Kickstarter works behind the scenes.

I don't want to share publicly how much I spend on Kickstarter. I don't want to give that information to anyone beyond my credit card company and my husband. It's no ones business how much money I spend. On Kickstarter anyone can look up my profile and see how many and which projects I've backed - that's public information. That's the information available to Backerclub. Did this make sense?

@TashaTurner - I think that makes total sense. I can certainly understand the questions about fund levels counting as I have sunk a lot of money into some projects however as stated the thing that can be easily tracked is the number of projects backed.

I to was a bit miffed about the ranking system. I backed the Mr Beam A3 laser cutter for around $800. I didn't have the money at the time so I got in contact with the campaign people (As suggested by kickstarter) and they let me pay it off over the next 5 months. So I fell of the backers list so that wasn't counted as a backing. I have it at home ready to assemble. I have a few I have fallen off the list but made contact with people to get the item anyway or upgrade a small pledge for better rewards. It seems like a difficult thing to rate. I'm on 129 counted backings. I might wince in pain if I add up all what I have spent on Kickstarter.....lol

@GreenlanternNT
I like that you found ways to support projects and work with them for purchases when you could not afford to back at the level you wished during the campaign. To keep your backer numbers up (now that you have a reason to care) perhaps back at the $1 level or similar while working behind the scenes to arrange private funding.

I wish I had earlier realised the benefit to campaigns to back at the $1 level and boost numbers, I'd like be one tier higher here in BackerClub. I still rarely do this when funds are charged other than in $US as I need to arrange for a credit card with no international transaction fees.

This brings me to another point though, when I made the mistake of looking to see just how much I had spent on KS I came across multiple pledges that were in foreign currency. That would add another degree of difficulty in tracking $ pledged versus number backed.

I'm still waiting to find out what the benefits are of being at a higher rank level here. Maybe I'll find out soon as I'm doing more of those $1 backing and I've gone from 3 to 4 and moving steadily closer to 5.

Could someone please explain the benefits of being at a higher rank here on Backerclub other than the status of being higher than others?

I went looking today on Kickstarter to see op if they'd give me a total for how much I've spent and couldn't find it. Is a total hidden somewhere or do I have to pull out my trusty spreadsheet and add in all my projects... Something I've promised my husband I'd do going forward... Soon...

So if we back a project that doesn't end up funding, how does that impact rankings?

Hey all,

Thought I'd jump into the conversation here and give some rationale for the ranking system, as well as explain what the benefits are.

For now, the main benefits are 1) better access to giveaways/contests/freebies in the private lounges & 2) the prestige of higher rank.

As we move forward though, we have some features that we'd like to add that will also take into account a member's rank. One of these (which I'll post soon in the forum to get some feedback about) relates to allowing project creators to send you direct messages asking for feedback/advice about their project in exchange for paying a small fee of which you would get a portion of. You'd accumulate these funds in your account her on BackerClub as "BackerBucks" and they could withdraw these funds to use to pledge on Kickstarter projects you like. Higher ranked members would likely get paid more for feedback and likely be sought after more by project creators for their advice.

As far as the ranking system goes, we chose backed projects for a couple of reason, though we are aware that just having a big number of backed projects isn't the only factor that determines a backers seriousness. First off, and probably foremost, is the fact that backing a project at any level, even $1 is a big help to project creators. Having run a number of campaigns myself, I can honestly say that KS backers usually don't realize how much a $1 or $5 thank-you pledge helps. It helps in at least 4 ways: 1) the greater the number of people who back a project, the more it encourages others to back 2) someone who backs even at $1 is another potential person to help spread the word through social media and in their own personal networks, 3) it is another person getting the project updates and who might respond to calls to action later in the campaign, 4) a backer is a backer in the eyes of the KS popularity ranking algorithm and so as a project creator it is wonderful to see someone put in a $1 pledge when they like a project, because even if the $1 itself doesn't make a huge difference toward their funding goal, it can give them more visibility on the KIckstarter site which in turn likely will result in more money being pledged.

So, given all the reasons why a pledge of any dollar amount is so helpful to projects, we felt it was a good number to try and encourage growth in.

Julia, you asked about failed projects. Yes, they do count in the number, mainly because Kickstarter counts them in the number of projects that they show a member has backed on their profile.

Finally, there is an issue with access to public information that would prevent us from using dollar amount pledged in the ranking here on BackerClub. Kickstarter doesn't make the pledge amounts public like Indiegogo does, so the only way we'd be able to incorporate this into the ranking system here in BackerClub would be if each member gave us access to their KS login info to query their account.

Hope that helps! Of course, we're happy to hear your feedback about the way we have looked at things related to ranking.

Mark - Co-Founder