Wood Burning Stoves 2.0 Kickstarter

Richard,

Selling other plans: I am concerned that people would be pissed that we don't have plans of the stuff in the videos.


Other stretch levels: not sure why, but I just want to focus on $100,000.

(good to see you richard - we should get together again when i am back in your neck of the woods. I got overwhelmed with stuff when you sent the coast-2-coast email - maybe that needs to be revisited?)

Xisca,

Streamed vs. download: to do the streamed thing, me and bart and adrien explored all sorts of stuff. Frankly it is just work to figure out the hosting and whatnot. I'm gonna leave it as "streaming" for now.

Becky,

I can see how such lists would be mighty handy. My only concern is that it could be several hours to do a good job and what if we have just one taker? I am meeting again with ernie and erica today - I'll mention it.

According to Kicktraq, yesterday was BIG. Like 48 new backers and 6300 dollars. If that momentum stays up, you'll hit your goal. Current projection is between 81k and 101k.

I like the idea of exploring a web seminar using the 94 as guinea pigs. I don't have time today but maybe tomorrow or this weekend I can think and act on it.

Regarding an online workshop: a Google "hangout" might qualify. I know that you can have a bunch of people sort of skyping at the same time, (it's good to have one producer type person choosing who is on the main screen (with other people appearing in smaller boxes at the bottom of the screen)) and you can record the whole thing for other people to watch at their leisure later on. My favorite fiction author, Patrick Rothfuss, has a monthly show associated with Geek and Sundry that starts as a Google hangout and ends us as a long YouTube video.

(I do not like travel. I'm staying at a crappy hotel and it just seems like wall-to-wall toxic stink. I have a terrible headache. I should be home in about five hours.)

Yesterday morning I was hanging out with Ernie and Erica and they came up with an excellent stretch goal: If we get $100,000 Ernie and Erica will be paid to create plans for everything in all of the videos and that will be added to the fifth DVD as a collection of PDF files.

Great idea! Can you send that out to all of the folks that have already pledged? This might be worth sending out to the dailyish email list. (Edit: oops, didn't check my email inbox prior to posting this. Nevermind. )

Thanks Paul, Really liked idea of adding some type of manual, and now it's in the stretch goal.

Would there be a possibility of adding a shippable core as a reward?? Not sure what their ETA is for release. Just an idea as I have backed some projects where won't get the reward for a year after end of the kickstarter.

Have contacted them so cross our fingers to hear something back (C2C that is).

Thanks for answering Paul, I just think that I am ignorant about what is streaming
I looked in wikipedia
... and if someone can explain...

On-demand streaming is provided by a means called progressive streaming or progressive download. Progressive streaming saves the file to a hard disk and then is played from that location.

Does it mean we can have it on our computer, or that we can watch ONLY on line?

It is really exciting that you're this close to the $100k mark... I really hope it gets there. If it doesn't, though, I think that some of your stretch goals (particularly the ones about the plans and the consulting) would make good kickstarters in their own right. I think stretch goals have a slightly different economic interpretation than independent projects, and that the independent projects might make more money as a result. The thing with kickstarter is that you know your pledge won't be charged unless the project meets its goal. That gives the investor some sense of confidence that they won't be throwing money down a hole. As far as I can tell though, the stretch goal doesn't give any such assurance. I could increase my pledge, but if the new goal isn't met it would just mean that I spent more to get the same thing. If the rocket plans DVD was it's own kickstarter, I'd be totally cool throwing $50 (or maybe more) at it, but as a stretch goal it makes me worry that I may have a more pressing need for the money somewhere else. There are probably a lot of people making that same calculation out there, and it ends up being something like a prisoners' dilemma problem.

Just something to consider. If the $100k mark isn't met on this one I'd still be very interested in some of the other stuff you've listed as stretch goals. Maybe you could subtract whatever the final amount is from $100k, add some overhead cost, and make that the target for funding them separately. I bet you'd get a bunch more money coming in that way. I know it wouldn't have the media impact of $100k on the wood stoves project, but it might just get the land bought so that would still be pretty sweet.

By the way, I have zero experience setting up kickstarters so I don't have a clue about how much work is involved, and that may make this a totally terrible idea. Sorry if that's the case, but I wanted to put it out there anyway...

Shippable core: there is a lot of progress in this space. More info in a week or two.

streaming technique: Gah. I dunno. The original plan was for just DVDs. This whole streaming thing is ... different .... and there is a lot I don't know about it. We will wing it.

stretch goals as a new kickstarter: everything you say is true. And, at the same time, I think if i was going to fire off a new kickstarter, it would be on a totally different topic.

I have linked into the kickstarter page via the survival site I work with and on my facebook page. After I talk with my boss about it I will link it onto the companies facebook page as well. Made my contribution to the kickstarter of course. I'm very interested in this technology. I absolutely love that you start the set with Fire Science. Can't wait to watch these DVDs. I plan to put a video up on my YouTube channel also.

Dag, I want those four videos, Adsense owes me enough money to cover them but I don't know that they will pay up by 4 PM tomorrow.

SOOOOOOOO close. yet...


Congrats Paul That's a nice pile of cash to build and empire with.

Man talk about an [s]eleventh[/s] fourteenth hour delivery.

Well done!!!
Thank you Paul and Crew! I can't wait...

Incredible success, congratulations.

I just explored the Kickstarter page, linking from yesterday's Daily-ish Email. Somehow I had been unaware of this project until now. Congrats indeed! Excellent trailer video, too. But I am dismayed to read that the project is closed and I missed it by about 3 hours, or so Kickstarter tells me. I would still like to contribute, and I would still very much like to purchase at least two DVDs and perhaps the new plans, if available. Is there a way that I can still do this?

Thank you, all, in advance for your reply.

Now is the time to roll out plans for "slacker backers", people like Mr. Nistico who became aware of the project too late, or like myself who meant to up their donation but didn't have time during the day. A little Paypal, you may get quite a bit closer to 100k.

I am also a day late and a dollar short well 12hours anyway. I would like to donate at the c note level now that I am not a dollar short. I would like all 4 DVDs and the 5th disc with all the extra that didn't make the cut plus the PDFs if at all possible. I do not require my name in lights or on the DVDs since I was not on the kickstsrarter it would just be cool. This looks like an incredible amount of great information that anyone could use and implement. Thank you for your continued works. Please get well soon.

Holy shmoley! Never mind the post I just made in one of the Paul's Farm threads about crowdfunding. I just bookmarked your Kickstarter project and am taking notes. Paul, you da MAN!

I've been sick for a while. Trying to come back to life and get through all of the emails and comments and private messages in all sorts of places.

Some of the most common questions are:

Q: how do I put money into the kickstarter now?

A: you cannot.

Q: what if I just send you $100 via paypal.

A: then I will say "thanks" and you will never see DVDs.

Q: so how do I get the DVDs now?

A: I think the smartest thing to do is be signed up for my daily-ish email. Once we have some idea of how we might arrange for people to pre-order the DVDs and whatnot, we will announce it on the daily-ish email.

Q: why didn't you tell me sooner about the kickstarter?

A: I think I announced it on the daily-ish email about eight times. Further, it was at the top of every page at permies and richsoil for 30 days. It was announced on the facebook fanpage, twitter and all sorts of places. I would like to suggest that you be signed up for the daily-ish email.

Q: I want the pdfs

A: I think you are referring to the plans that were part of the stretch goals. Since we didn't reach $100,000, those plans will not be created.

Q: I'll give you $20 for the plans

A: There are no plans. And there are no plans to make the plans.

Q: i demand that you make this available for download - it's the only sensible thing. Streaming is unacceptable.

A: I suppose there could be a time when such an option can be made available. There are no plans for anything like this at this time.

Q: rather than sending me DVDs, just put the videos as MP4 files on a jump drive and send me that.

A: You will be receiving DVDs

Q: I put the money into the kickstarter three weeks ago and i still have not received the DVDs.

A: This is how kickstarter works. You pay for things before the product is ready for shipping. These DVDs will probably be shipped sometime in July.

Q: Now that the kickstarter is done, what are you going to do to get this information to the people in countries that cannot afford the internet or DVDs but desperately need this information for safety and warmth?

A: It sounds like those people need one-on-one human instruction. I nominate you to do that.

Q: What materials should I buy so I can build this when the DVDs arrive?

A: I think you might want to ask this question in the rocket stove forum at permies. There were 30 people there that can answer your question.

Q: now that the kickstarter is over and you made so much money, surely you will sell the DVDs for less.

A: If I sell them at all, i will probably sell them for more. I like the idea that the people that put money into the kickstarter get the best bang for the buck. So that when I do any future kickstarters, people will want to fund the kickstarter rather than pay more later.


There have been lots of other questions. Most of them don't make sense. Many of them seem to be from crazy people that think I need to be a servant to their crazy. With as much crazy as there is out there, I'm a bit surprised that society is able to function as well as it does today.

Thanks to all the folks that just did the obvious and simple thing: Look! cool DVDs! I want! Here's my money! Done! After 30+ days of trying to answer questions for all the crazy people, i am super grateful for all the rational people that put money into the project without question or hesitation. $92,772 is a very respectable amount of money! Cool!

THanks for posting those questions and your responses. I needed a laugh. And also, thanks for everything you and your partners in crime do.

I am worried that my kick starter pledge won't go through. I have gotten a zillion messages that my credit card is denied, and each time I have tried to fix it. Yesterday the site let me connect to my bank account, but now I have to wait until the minimal deposit into my bank account to test it, and the deadline is 3/26.

The problem seems to be that this is a separate account from my Amazon account that I buy stuff with. It was not clear. Still hoping it works. If it doesn't I will cry.

This is the most frustrating experience ever trying to give money. I wish I could mail in the cash. Sigh.

Glad you are feeling better.
Rita Vail

Thanks, Paul for the great post.
I so know what you mean about the crazy.
It was a very fun read though. lol

Hope you feel 100% soon - sorry you got way-laid in the midst,
but yeah, you did okay! Good job!

Sorry we didn't hit the goal for the plans - would have been cool,
but, oh well! We came close... Maybe someone else will want to do up
plans and offer them out after the DVDs hit...

Thanks for all the great work and feel better!

Cheers

Glad you are feeling better. I got some kind of nasty crud the week after you guys visited too - who knows where it came from, but it sucked.
Thanks for sharing some of the questions.
I do think it would be neat if Kickstarter had some kind of sister site where people could continue contributing until a second deadline. But that's not how it works. And it works pretty darn well for what it is.

I suppose we could talk about a second Kickstarter with plans or other stretch goal stuff rolled in. The plans might go well with some other projects we've been thinking about funding through Kickstarter, like testing and shippable components.
Paul, let me know if this seems like something you'd want to support.

Yours,
Erica W

Hear, hear, Erica. Let's give a big "hell yeah!" for plans and shipable components!

I already ponied up for the 4 DVDs, and I can't wait. Maybe we should compile a list, on this thread or another, of people who are interested in plans and shippable cores, so interested, in fact, that they would pony up again. I'd be down for it.

-CK

I'd be really interested in having a set of plans that I could build from. I'm currently heating 2300 square feet with about 5-6 cords of wood/yr. Anything that can help cut the cost of that would be AWESOME! I'm hoping to get enough info from the DVDs to make a reasonable stab at it DIY style, but if there's plans that work perfectly for my situation, sitting on a desktop some place, I'd gladly pay a reasonable price for them.

I'm so bummed out! My wife gave birth in mid February and had stopped paying attention to the Dailyish Emails and this fourm until this last weekend so I had no idea this was going on... Really wish there was a way I could still buy these DVDs. I guess I don't see the logic in not making the streaming option available for future purchase (assuming that you do all the work to set it up once, why not keep making money off if it?).

If anyone in the Seattle area who bought the DVDs wants to organize a viewing party (or a series of parties) that would be awesome! I'd brew up a batch of beer as a contribution!

Post not exactly on topic....but if you didn't see it there is a Missoulian Article today about the $275k program to replace above-standard wood stoves in Seeley Lake.

It also mentions an international competition for clean wood stoves.

Chris MacCarlson wrote:Post not exactly on topic....but if you didn't see it there is a Missoulian Article today about the $275k program to replace above-standard wood stoves in Seeley Lake.

It also mentions an international competition for clean wood stoves.

Chris, by any chance would you be willing to contact the reporter and tell him about rocket mass heaters?

Sure - anything in particular you want me to get across, or any buzzwords? feel free to email me too. chcarlson gmail

Up to you. I think it is good to point out that a big part of the work for rocket mass heaters is happening in missoula.

Any news on the dvds? I keep checking my e-mail for updates. You on schedule for your estimated release date in July?

I watched the fire science dvd yesterday. It is almost done. It sounds like the other three will be done soon also. I need to process stuff on kickstarter today for those people that have info appearing in the dvds.

Awesome! Thanks for the update and all the hard work

Kickstarter just asked me to confirm my address! Must be getting close to shipping out the DVD. Oh yeah!

All four DVDs are done. Sorta. We are in the process of showing them to six people to see if there are things that need mending before sending them to everybody else.

Great news, just received first batch sample from the factory, and it looks good. So we start shipping the single DVDs today. Coming to your mailboxes pretty soon !

Combo backers, hold your breath, it's a matter of days !