Over the past year, we’ve been working to make sure every part of the Kickstarter system is clear and straightforward. We’ve done everything from improving our rules and community guidelines to creating a real-talk Trust & Safety page that explains how we work with our community to keep Kickstarter healthy. And today, we’re updating our Terms of Use. The updated terms go into effect for all projects launched on or after October 19, 2014.

So what’s different? To begin with, we simplified the language, subtracted lots of legal jargon, and made the terms as straightforward and to-the-point as we could. We encourage you to read the full update here.

We also added a detailed outline of what’s expected from everyone involved in a project. For the overwhelming majority of projects, it’s pretty simple: creators finish the work they planned, backers are happy, and nobody sweats the details. But there are exceptions. Sometimes problems come up, projects don’t go according to plan, and people wind up in the dark about what’s supposed to happen next. So we’re spelling it out — what’s expected from backers, what’s expected from creators, and what needs to happen if a project runs into trouble.

You can read that section of the terms right here. This update reflects the best practices we’ve seen from our community to get the best possible outcomes from challenging situations. Incorporating them into these terms is a small but important part of building a healthy, trusted environment where people work together to bring creative projects to life.

If you have thoughts you’d like to share with us, just get in touch here.

Thank you for reading.