Crowdfunding: Trial by Error [David Tuller] Reporting on ME, CFS, ME/CFS, "medically unexplained symptoms," and related stuff, Spring 2021

94% last I looked.

 

100%

 

Yippee, yippee!

Absolutely excellent, well done everyone!

 

Woohoo, that's brilliant. GO Dave

 

Via e-mail:

Trial by Error Spring 2021 Project Update: The campaign has reached the goal!!

Hi, everyone--Thanks so much for your support this time around--the crowdfunding reached the goal this morning! I am very gratified to be able to focus on work again.

At this point, I am urging anyone who is still in a mood to donate before the end of April--that is, by Friday night--to think about also supporting Dr Keith Geraghty. Keith is a colleague and friend writing terrific, peer-reviewed analyses of low-quality research from the biopsychosocial ideological brigades. His work has also been essential in the ongoing debunking of PACE and the CBT/GET paradigm. You can see his crowdfunding campaign here:

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/keithgeraghty

Thanks again!--David

Code:

https://twitter.com/davidtuller1/status/1387776829415731209

 

It sucks that we have to fund almost everything ourselves (or otherwise do all the work that forces legal obligations to fund stuff based on evidence) but we can still do it and that rules!

Whenever a proper documentary gets made people will have such a hard time believing this much malice and incompetence could not only be tolerated but encouraged and generously funded with endless support and tolerance. It's just too broken, so much that the most sober description of what happened is already too absurd to believe. With participation trophies and all.

And still we persist, because there is literally no other option. Thank you to those who are on the right side of history. The main problem with being on the right side of history is that it's the wrong side politically, until it isn't.

 

It does suck from both sides of that equation--that is, as one of those who has no options but to seek community support. But it's amazing that people essentially raised around $100,000 this month, between Keith, me, and the $10,000 equipment crowdfunder for Ron Davis.

 

https://twitter.com/user/status/1388190906759647235

 

But the counterpoint to this is that we are so lucky to have folks well worth supporting in this way.

 

Would it be possible to seek funding from other sources for the purpose of transparency in research or some important cause like this? There have to be funds for this available somewhere. If not, they should be.

 

I'm sure there are. But applying for funds can itself be a full-time job. And these projects are fairly specific--both Keith and I are engaging in watchdogging bad research in the domains of ME, CFS and MUS. Many funders have broader interests.

 

Throughout my career I hardly ever got funding for worthwhile projects from formal sources.
The important things are always funded on a shoestring, mostly borrowed from some other pair of shoes.

One shouldn't be frightened by that but it is still necessary to play the game enough to be in a position to borrow some more shoestrings when needed.

Nobody ever gets money from the boat to rock it. But science moves forward because boats are rocked.
If you are lucky someone sees the value in the rocking and doors open. Sometimes I think there is a new problem that everyone has lost the plot but then sometimes I think it was always the same - I am just getting old. At the end of the day people do notice if stuff is done well and stuff has been done well here.

 

But the challenge is that people often have to rock it first with no apparent financial incentives. People are ok with funding Keith and me because we had started rocking the boat before ever seeking funding this way because we believed what we were doing was important to do. It would be hard to just announce you want 25,000 pounds or $60,000 if you haven't done anything first to make people believe they should invest in your work. Crowdfunding would not have occurred to me in a million years. When someone first mentioned it as a viable option, I was like, What? You have to be joking. I'm not doing that.

 

But it's not really a challenge, David. Some of us were born to want to rock boats without a financial incentive. Which is what makes life worth living.

 

well, you have a point.

 

Maybe this would better fit here or there...

but just saw it and thought if anyone were still in the mood to donate, it would be a brilliant belated happy birthday greeting for @Robert 1973:

Code:

https://twitter.com/RobertHMcMullen/status/1389269623170912260

Thanks for all you do Rob, and apologies for misspelling your name.

 

Love that: Born to rock boats!

 

I blame @Graham!

Sincere thanks to you and everyone else here who donated. We smashed the £10,000 target this evening.