When Kickstarter first came out, I was pretty excited. A whole platform dedicated to helping artists and entrepreneurs fund their dreams? What’s not to like? A lot, as it turns out, because like everything good on the Internet, there are people who seem hell-bent on ruining it.

Today, a story on Jezebel popped up on my newsfeed. Apparently, some guy in Seattle is trying to raise money to create the world’s largest dick drawing. As of right now, he has achieved almost half of his $100 goal.

I get that for every hack trying to raise money to draw dicks or make potato salad, there are countless artists and entrepreneurs trying to raise money for their next professional endeavour. Still, these stories bother me. There seems to be more of them popping up. I also think some of these Kickstarter pages will spawn more ridiculous Kickstarter pages in the wake of their success. Part of me hopes that the novelty of practically burning money on potato salad and the like will die down, but another part of me doesn’t trust people all that much.

Why do these offend me so much? Because it’s hard being in an artistic profession and it’s rough starting your own business. People who strike out into that world need all the help they can get. Every dollar spent on that dick picture is a dollar that isn’t going to someone’s album or clothing label. That’s what offends me. Hell, even funding a genuine, yet slightly ridiculous product like the Grilled Cheesus Sandwich Press is a huge step up.

I realize that most of these “projects” start off with modest goals, but that doesn’t mean that people aren’t throwing ridiculous amounts of money at them. The Potato Salad Kickstarter aimed to raise a measly $10, but ended up raising over $50,000 (to date…the project is still going on).

Look, Kickstarter is not a place to raise money for your party, your vacation, or your ridiculous doodles; at least, it shouldn’t be. I also judge you if you burn your money on these projects in an aim to be a lemming or draw attention to yourself. If you want something to follow, take part in a social cause or Twitter hashtag movement or something. If you want to draw attention to yourself, start a blog *wink, wink*.

Just stop it, ok?