I'm pretty sure the Kickstarter spirit is defined as "whatever the people running Kickstarter want it to be".

Well, there's risky and then there's risky. I believe that post was put up at the same time that the LIFX light bulb campaign was prematurely ended at ~$2 million. That project was from someone whose previous KS project was a cardboard lightbox that had missed its shipping date at that point, so I think the likelihood of collateral damage there made Kickstarter pause. (Credit to LIFX that they learned/hired quickly and managed to ship.)

Whatever you take the spirit of Kickstarter to mean, I think that Pebble has it. They're grateful for Kickstarter, and foster a user community — launching a new product this way just feels native.

This spirit is better for me. I'll never back another Kickstarter project in the old "spirit". One project failing and taking all my money with it is enough for me. I'm nearly certain that I'll get my watch, so I backed this one.

In my experience services that don't change over time are the ones that go away. Kickstarter seems like a fluid concept that continues to evolve. As I look they're passing $5 million so it seems as though the community is responding.

yeah, you can see how outraged people are by how much they are refusing to support the offering