The Kickstarter backer data is personally identifiable information. Treat it like medical radioactives. It's necessary, but don't leave it lying around. Under no circumstances is it to be uploaded to OneDrive, Google Drive, or other LLM feeders. Private, paid Dropbox accounts are acceptable.
I'm now setting a 30-day drop dead timeline for users to fill out their survey. I post KS updates saying “please fill out your survey” immediately, 1 week, 2 week, 3 week and last day.
Kickstarter does not allow updating the backer report in KS. We need to have a control spreadsheet.
To mail books we must verify:
- Backer Name (full first name, and last name: Customs won't let initials like “AB Backer” out of the country)
- Backer Phone Number (including country code) – As stated in the KS description, we need a phone number to ship books. US shippers will not accept overseas packages without destination phone numbers. Shippers check for fakes like 555-555-1212 or 1-234-567-8900, so those will not work. Many European and Asian customs agencies expect to text notifications to recipients. Even USPS is requiring phone numbers for about half of Priority Mail packages within the US.
- Backer Shipping Address – Kickstarter might have backer addresses, but they do not pass that information to us. Yes, that's daft. If backers want a book, we need the backer to give us a shipping address. Also, people move. Shipping within the US is expensive, non-US shipping is outrageous. We need backers' current address, even if they provided it in the last campaign. (Also, now and then people forget and put a fake address to receive books. If the address looks bogus, check it.)
Go to the KS campaign→ Backer Report. Click “Download Full Backer Report.”
First download becomes our control spreadsheet. Updates get added to it.
Sort by rewards. Verify info for physical rewards.
If information is missing, contact backer via KS messages. Include the explanation for why we need it.
Update the control spreadsheet with backer responses. (Idea: color manual responses red so I have an idea how many backers can follow instructions?)
Get a new backer report twice a week. Copy entries that have been added since the last download to the control spreadsheet. Check those entries.
After the thirty days survey period expires, give a couple days for stragglers to respond. Because people.