How do you find new crowdfunded projects?

[ysabetwordsmith]

When you decide to hunt for something new in cyberfunded creativity, how do you do that?  What do you search for?  Do you go hunting for one main criterion, or a set of several important criteria together?  If you use multiple approaches, which do you think you use the most often or consider the most important?

• Do you look for a genre?  ("I want some new science fiction.  I don't care if it's long or short, text or webcomic.")


• Do you look for a format?  ("I want to pick up a new web serial.  I don't care what genre or crowdfunding model it is.")


• Do you look for a particular crowdfunding model?  ("I have some money to spend on a creative person whose work impresses me, whatever that is.  I'm going to browse some site that lists project pitches.")


• Do you look for something by someone you know?  ("I want to support a friend.  I want to pick up a new project by someone I already know.  I don't care what it is.  Who's got something fresh?")


• Do you look for reviews, ratings, recommendations?  Do you ask your friends what they are enjoying?  ("I don't know what I'm in the mood for.  Somebody point me to something great.")


• Do you look for a big heap of projects that you can peruse until something grabs your interest?  ("I have an oyster knife, and I want a bucket of oysters so I can find me some pearls.  Give me some oysters and get out of my way!")

We're working on ideas for a crowdfunding hub site.  Hopefully it will include a lot of different ways for people to find what they want.  It occurred to me that, for designing a main menu, it might be helpful to have an idea of how people typically look for new projects.  That way, if there is a clearly preferred approach, we can aim to accommodate it.