AirBNB Squatter’s Kickstarter Backers Revolt After “Would Squat Again” Comment

No one can prove with 100% certainty that the person who left a glib comment on the Kickstarter page for the game Confederate Express was Maksym Pashanin, game creator and alleged AirBNB squatter. However, the comment did prompt backers to declare the project a “scam” and demand refunds.

“After your contemptuous comment, the backers have now been left in no doubt that you are a bottom feeding lamprey,” one particularly articulate backer said, “and as such had never had any intention of ever working on a game or a honest job.”

Here’s the comment left from Panashin’s account:

The problem with Kickstarter is that backing a project is neither a purchase from a store nor an investment vehicle, and it has all of the disadvantages of both. If you’re an early backer of a company that, say, gets acquired by Facebook for 2 billion dollars, all you get is the reward that you chose during the company’s initial Kickstarter campaign. However, if the project falls through, you have no consumer protections, because Kickstarter isn’t a store. A legitimate company with one project that falls through may offer a different product, like Yogscast did when its $567,000 Kickstarter campaign was canceled.

Airbnb squatter: “Would squat again” [San Francisco Chronicle]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist