I completely agree, if your point of view or style of reply doesn't fit into the Quora mindset, it'll get downvoted or blocked. It seems they don't really like when you don't think like them.
Resources like Coursera and Udacity are fantastic. They are how I got started on the path to becoming a professional software developer. They truly do a great job of democratizing education (at least to those with the resources to access the Internet).
I've mainly thought of free online education as impacting the lives of the thousands of students who yearn to learn, but do not have the opportunity to do so.
It's great to see that it's a two way street in terms of impact. Hopefully feedback from students who aren't traditional college students will help humanity broaden its understanding of the world and help us identify biases our academic disciplines may have. And we can all come out better for it.
The political argument isn't that you had "nothing" to do with your success. All businesses require help from many factors. You need luck. You need other people (um, like customers, your employees, the gov. for public infrastructure investment, your family, your friends).
It's just egregious to claim that you alone are 100% responsible for your success, like you don't interact in a world with 7+ billion. You're telling me your business doesn't rely any small subset of those people?
I don't doubt that you work hard, or don't deserve your success.
Kickstarter is meant as a fundraising website, everything is a donation.
That's why the rewards are "perks" not guarantees. Project backers have twisted this around to turn it into preorders for products, but fundamentally Kickstarter is a way to bring in donations, with the perks functioning as nice thank you gifts.
I think it's pretty clear through Kickstarter's use of the term "perks" for the different reward levels project founders can create that you are donating money to the cause.
The fact that a lot of project creators have changed some backer's perception of the transaction doesn't change that Kickstarter is clearly a tool for raising funds through donations, not as a product pre-order transaction or investment into the company.
I think any sane person should be able to see the risks involved and consider them carefully before donating.
Maybe there are clueless folks out there who think Kickstarter is basically Amazon. But I think it's clear from the website that it's akin to demanding money back from your local school's fundraiser because you didn't like the gift basket they sent you.