Kickstarter recently announced some policy changes designed to make it both quicker and easier to launch new projects.
Up to this point, all of the campaigns that have appeared on Kickstarter were first reviewed by a community manager to determine if they met a specific, finite goal. But now, a new option called Launch Now allows a creator to go ahead and launch a project whenever it's ready.
If this option is selected, the project in question will be submitted for review by an algorithm that looks at thousands of data points to determine if the project is indeed ready to launch. Things like the project's description, rewards, funding goal and whether the creator has previously launched a project are all taken into consideration.
If a project passes the test, then it's allowed to go live on the site for funding. If it fails, the creator will need to submit the project for review by a community manger before proceeding.
Kickstarter has also dramatically simplified the rules for new projects, boiling them down to three basic principles. Under the new guidelines, projects must create something to share with others, they must be honest and clearly presented and they cannot fundraise for charity, offer financial incentives or involve prohibited items.
As such, many rules were removed that Kickstarter said didn't feel necessary anymore. This also opened up the site to new kinds of projects including bath and beauty products and more types of software.
A complete list of the revised rules can be found by clicking here.