Kickstarter simplifies its rules, and the campaign submission process

Today, Kickstarter announced a simplification of its rules that will allow more types of campaigns on the site, and also announced a new "Launch Now" system that will allow those running their campaigns to push them live immediately. Kickstarter describes Launch Now like this: "It gives creators a simple choice: go ahead and launch your project whenever you’re ready, or get feedback from one of our community managers first." In the past, Kickstarter would manually improve all campaigns. Now, if your campaign passes a series of automated checks, it will be examined only at your request. If you're creating a campaign, you can also ask its community team for feedback and incorporate it before going live. Kickstarter has also greatly condensed its rules down to three simple statements. Obviously, that simplifies things for a start, but The Verge reports that this also means that campaigns that were banned for not adhering to the site's old rules can be resubmitted, as they may pass muster under the newer, looser rules. One notable rule that remains, however, is that campaign creators cannot seek investment via Kickstarter; campaigns must still be for specific projects, not a general pool of funding. You can find more details on these changes, including a FAQ, at the Kickstarter blog.