These guys have scraped or otherwise gotten their hands on the mailing list associated with this forum as I've just received spam from them flogging this project.

Or is the mailing list for sale? Anyway; that definitely puts this project on the "automatic pass" for me.

The Hedge and The Hedge Special Edition (stripper deck).

Have sent many emails to Justin ("Faro" cards) and have been lied to repeatedly about the state of affairs. I know that some received their decks, but the comments section in all his KS projects feature people who have been burned.

I don't think he set out to be a thief, but it seems very unlikely that he has any intention of fulfilling a large number of orders.

To me, I put this into what I think of as a "Design" category of deck.

There have always been examples of these decks appearing, but recently I get the impression there are quite a few more. The reasons are not hard to imagine. A few huge KS projects and a zillion people who think "I could do that". And, from an isolated design perspective, they can.

It often IS good design. However, it's not always good playing card design. There's a crucial difference.

There are tons of examples of decks which are neither, a gratifying number which are both, but there are no small number of examples which are one but not the other.

Anyway, to me, this one falls into that "well, nice enough, but not my cup of tea" category.

Note to self: don't try to do any thing else that is an attempt to create excitement and traffic to your page just like every other online marketing scheme in the world. Just come out with more junk like key chains, fridge magnets, and pet collars that have your back design on them cuz that's what people will really like and want to spend their money on. (END soap box)

One of the problems of the internet (as well as many other forums) is that negativity sounds so much louder only because the tiny minority who act that way tend to yell.

The many many other, more reasonable, people don't feel the need to scream that they approve of what you're doing.

When you feel passionate about something, and what you hear over the general hub-bub is somebody screaming "YOU SUCK", it's easy to miss that 99% of the people who are following what you are doing are NOT screaming (or even thinking) the same thing.

I used to own and run a company which did online games and contests. We had hundreds of thousands of participants across the continent. Many days were dominated by a tiny tiny fraction who felt, for one reason or another, that WE SUCKED.

However, we'd do conventions or just meet-ups in cities I was visiting and the one-on-one feedback couldn't have been more different.

Anyway, just a supportive voice reminding you "Illegitimi non carborundum" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegitimi_non_carborundum