Crowdfunding: Connecting Creators and Patrons

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.