I think the donation pattern is becoming that some wait until the last day or three to see what the deficit is to decide how much to donate. There were a number of large donations ($1000 +) right at the end. Thank you to everybody who contributed, no matter how small. Ten dollars from somebody on a pension is just as important and worthy as a thousand from a wealthy person. (Can the person who is cutting up onions in the room please stop.)
The moderation team has decided to not split posts off from the thread. We think the information about David's approach to his ME/CFS work is not off-topic for the thread. The small number of posts that go beyond that are difficult to separate. We have existing threads for discussing the evidence (or lack of it) for specific biological hypotheses. If you want to discuss this decision, please contact a moderator rather than posting on the thread. Without my mod hat on, fantastic about the target being achieved. Thanks to all those who contributed. Looking forward to your next year of work David.
Wow, what a difference a day makes! The crowdfunder is over, although the link will be live till the end of the day, California time. yes, I was pretty surprised to see that. Also, there seemed to be quite a few people this time who hadn't given before. Thanks for all the support here!!
Fantastic news David. Well done all I have not given this time .... hoping need would not arise, as I think Whitney's Birthday Appeal for OMF deserves some of the cake! Next time though. ......
I haven't promoted it today because I reached the goal, although people still seem to be donating a bit.
I did not get round to donating until after the target had been reached, but that was my thought in still doing so.
It's true that I cover travel costs personally. Like going to Maeve's inquest. And depending where I am, I stay with friends if I can, but that's not always an option. And this trip, I got myself to Dublin from US, and the Irish ME Association picked up the costs within the country after that. Those who have critcized me make it seem like I'm raking it in without considering that I raise barely enough to cover 65% of the salary/benefit costs for my position at Berkeley, which is why my academic appointment is for 65% time, not 100%--and in the US the benefits, mostly health insurance, eat up about 40% of the total amount raised. I have to do some free-lance work unrelated to this as well, which helps cover the travel costs. If I had to get health insurance on Obamacare, it would be like $15,000+ a year, or more.
Anyone else getting lots of emails from Berkeley? I have received 5 of them just the last two days: from Dean Michael C. Lu, Students of Berkeley Public Health, UC Berkeley Public Health and Cori Traub. I never signed up for these emails, and they keep coming from new senders. I keep unsubscribing, but they still keep coming. All asking for money. They seem legit, don't seem to be spam/fraud. It's starting to get annoying.
Sorry to hear that. I haven't got any. They do write to me during the year by post from time to time.
Yes I've had a lot in the last couple of days too. Unfortunately as I previously accidentally donated via two different emails I get twice as much spam.
I have not got many emails from them, mostly just ones thanking me for a donation, best I can recall. But I am still getting the glossy paper mail stuff, despite writing to them a while back and asking them not to send them, which they acknowledged and said they would stop doing. And they did, for a while. But it has recently started up again.
Sorry, I missed the five emails from Berkeley people in my Promotions email bucket. They certainly are trying hard.
Yes, in the past I got emails asking for donations but they have currently tailed off, though recently I did get one of those glossy letters on expensive paper thanking me for my continued support though it went into the recycling without being read.
Thank you, everyone! Good to know I'm not the only one. Please let me know if you find a way to make the emails stop.
I just delete them without opening them. I have other sources of emails I don't want and haven't managed to stop. I just treat it as a daily small task to select all the unwanted ones and delete them as a batch. I guess you could mark them as spam, and eventually they would all go automatically into spam instead of your inbox.
I've clicked the "update preferences" link at the bottom of the email and opted-out of all. That should stop it at the source rather than just sending to spam.