How do you find new crowdfunded projects?

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

When you decide to hunt for something new in cyberfunded creativity, how do you do that?  What do you search for?  Do you go hunting for one main criterion, or a set of several important criteria together?  If you use multiple approaches, which do you think you use the most often or consider the most important?

• Do you look for a genre?  ("I want some new science fiction.  I don't care if it's long or short, text or webcomic.")


• Do you look for a format?  ("I want to pick up a new web serial.  I don't care what genre or crowdfunding model it is.")


• Do you look for a particular crowdfunding model?  ("I have some money to spend on a creative person whose work impresses me, whatever that is.  I'm going to browse some site that lists project pitches.")


• Do you look for something by someone you know?  ("I want to support a friend.  I want to pick up a new project by someone I already know.  I don't care what it is.  Who's got something fresh?")


• Do you look for reviews, ratings, recommendations?  Do you ask your friends what they are enjoying?  ("I don't know what I'm in the mood for.  Somebody point me to something great.")


• Do you look for a big heap of projects that you can peruse until something grabs your interest?  ("I have an oyster knife, and I want a bucket of oysters so I can find me some pearls.  Give me some oysters and get out of my way!")

We're working on ideas for a crowdfunding hub site.  Hopefully it will include a lot of different ways for people to find what they want.  It occurred to me that, for designing a main menu, it might be helpful to have an idea of how people typically look for new projects.  That way, if there is a clearly preferred approach, we can aim to accommodate it.

Comments

Re: Hmm...

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Speaking as a former reference librarian, I can tell you that multiple parameters in each search is pretty much standard for library catalogs. You might want to peruse your local library's catalog for ideas before you start reinventing the wheel [g].

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Ah, but I'm not the one building the wheel! I'm just ordering it. MeiLin is building it, and she clearly knows what she's doing. She was able to read the list of requested features and say, "Yeah, Drupal can do all that." So if multiple-search is a feature, she'll figure out a sensible way to do it, including if it's something that can be taken straight out of the box like several other requested features.

You know, I just realized ... I don't think I've used a library search function since they were computerized. I grew up on card catalogs. By the time computers were coming in, I didn't need the gear anymore. I just walked to the books I wanted.

Re: Hmm...

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Well, the inventor isn't always the builder [g].

I just thought it might help to compare what might work in a computerized search function for literature with some that are already proven to work, is all.

Re: Hmm...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

You're probably right; research is a good thing. I'm not sure how helpful it would be for me to do the looking, unless MeiLin says, "What do you want this thing to look like? Go browse some examples."