Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter has apologized for not pulling down a project called "A Guide to Getting Awesome with Women" following a series of complaints that called the content highly offensive.

After Kickstarter caught wind of a blog post making the rounds on Reddit, which pointed out the questionable material found on the project, the company decided to keep it on the site. Kickstarter has since pulled the project — which promised step-by-step instructions on "getting good with women" — and is donating $25,000 to anti-sexual violence organization RAINN.

"The offensive material was part of a draft for a 'seduction guide' that someone was using Kickstarter to publish," Kickstarter wrote in an official blog post. "The posts offended a lot of people — us included — and many asked us to cancel the creator’s project. We didn’t. We were wrong."

Kickstarter cited two main reasons for their call.

"The decision had to be made immediately," the company wrote in its blog post. "We had only two hours from when we found out about the material to when the project was ending. We’ve never acted to remove a project that quickly. Our processes, and everyday thinking, bias heavily toward creators. We feel a duty to our community — and our creators especially — to approach these investigations methodically as there is no margin for error in canceling a project."

The company wrote the factors "don’t excuse our decision," but it hopes to shed light on the thought behind it.

"Let us be 100% clear: Content promoting or glorifying violence against women or anyone else has always been prohibited from Kickstarter," the company wrote. "If a project page contains hateful or abusive material, we don’t approve it in the first place. "If a project page contains hateful or abusive material, we don’t approve it in the first place. If we had seen this material when the project was submitted to Kickstarter (we didn’t), it never would have been approved. Kickstarter is committed to a culture of respect."

Those who funded the project will not receive their money back, the company wrote. "There is no taking back money from the project or canceling funding after the fact. When the project was funded the backers’ money went directly from them to the creator. We missed the window."

In addition to pulling down the project, Kickstarter is prohibiting “seduction guides” or other projects that encourage "misogynistic behavior".

"These things do not belong on Kickstarter," the company wrote.

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Starting a social media marketing campaign can be extremely overwhelming if you're not familiar with the digital space. Just the thought of creating a company Facebook page or tweeting to your consumers can cause stress and anxiety. Last month, Mashable hooked up a few small businesses with social media experts from our Small Business Panel, to offer some mom-and-pop shops advice on how to amp up their presence on various social platforms.

We paired local salt-maker Borsari Food Company with social media marketing expert Ben Pavlovic, founding partner of VineSprout. After reviewing Borsari's social assets, Pavlovic immediately suggested that it focus its efforts on increasing its Facebook following. In order to do this, Pavlovic recommended that Borsari implement a targeted ad campaign on Facebook, include a call to action to "like" the Page in its marketing materials, create a vanity Facebook URL to boost SEO, and to change its cover photo to better reflect the brand and its product.

In one month's time, Borsari has seen an increase in its Facebook following from 133 fans to 167, and it's also seen a slight increase in Twitter followers, from 73 to 86. Additionally, when you now visit the Borsari's Facebook Page, you are welcomed by one of its store's wooden signs, and a thumbnail image that showcases one of its products. Before our makeover, the Page didn't have any cover image — and its thumbnail was of a random garden.  Read more…

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Kickstarter has been described as the Home Shopping Network for geeks — picture an online version of the Sharper Image catalog and an investment platform for tech startups having a baby.

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The holiday season is just around the corner — the "season of giving." Well, let's call this the "season of buying" because before all that giving happens, you'll have to find gifts for all those special someones in your life.

At Mashable, we're constantly writing about the newest and coolest knickknacks from the tech world, many of which would make great gifts for your geeky family and friends. In addition to our regular load of tech tips, each day throughout the holiday season we'll post a new suggestion in our Gift of the Day series.

In case you had a busy few days and haven't had time to follow along, we've rounded up our most useful articles from the past week. Aside from some killer gift ideas, you'll also find hands-on social media advice concerning recent updates to Facebook's mobile app, Instagram and Pinterest, not to mention digital business and marketing advice.

Let Mashable help you make the most of your time on the Internet. Read more…

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The holidays are just around the corner, and for many, the next month-and-a-half will be the busiest and most stressful time of the year.

Here at Mashable, we're not looking to add to your stress; rather, we're trying to reduce it. So, for your convenience, we've rounded up all of our digital features into one post.

This week's roundup contains essential resources for holiday shoppers, including our Gift of the Day series and a gallery of 50 holiday gifts for video-game fans.

In addition to gifts and gadgets, you'll find helpful social media and digital business advice, as well as some killer software apps. So dig in, and help yourself to a holiday-feast-sized portion of digital media resources.

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