Spring Fundraiser Begins

Today, I am beginning the spring fundraiser for this site. Yes, I know it's still technically winter, but the fundraiser in early December was dubbed winter, so this one shall be spring. I'm starting this fundraiser five days earlier than I'd originally planned simply because I am going to be moving somewhere between March 1 and March 15 due to my property manager changing my lease behind my back after six years in my apartment. I might delay moving until the end of March because, due to the economy, the rental market in Seattle is flooded with available rentals in a way no one has seen in this city in decades, but landlords have yet to realize that they are in a price war and bring down their rents accordingly. That's starting to happen but it needs to pick up steam before I sign a lease.

The goal for this fundraiser is $4,000 and I hope to hit that goal by March 6. During the last fundraiser, 70 people made contributions large and small. This time out, the goal is 100 contributions. This site currently has about 6,000 readers who Quantast pegs as addicts (several times a day readers) or regulars (several times a week readers), so these goals should be doable.

As usual, the PayPal button is on the right. For those who prefer sending checks, if you don't know my mailing address, send me an email and I'll send you my mailing address. Thanks to all of you for your support.

Ironically, I got a donation out of the blue on Monday, so the remainder to be raised now stands at $3,985. I know the economy stinks badly right now, but this is one of those times that when a bunch of people pull together in a small way, then things get done.

For the newer regulars amongst you, let me answer two inevitable questions that come up: why don't you have ads on your site? Why aren't you a non-profit?

I don't have ads for a few reasons. One is that those little text ads you see all over the Internet don't generate much more than $2 or $3 a day, in my experience, and the company's who offer the ads are very tricky with their payouts. For example, in late 2007, Google ripped me off to the tune of about $600. Two, I have little control over the content of text ads and many of those ads, in my experience, for sites like this turn out to be stealth ads for various psych meds. I simply don't want ads for psych meds on this site. Three, I've approached several of the companies who do run banner ad services (these pay better than text ads) for smallish web sites, but to date none have responded. My sense of things is that the contrarian nature of this site scares them off. No easy sales to Big Pharma through me!

So in attempting to keep psych meds ads off this site and tell what I consider to be the truth of their products and paradigm, I am paying a price.

As for the non-profit issue, in Washington State it runs about $1,000 to become a non-profit, or so I'm told, and that's simply not money I have right now.

For those of you who wonder about why you might give $50--or$5--to this site, consider the last few months: boys growing boobs thanks to Risperdal; defanging the half of college kids are mentally ill story; continuing to deal with the Fred Goodwin conflict of interest story; banging on the dangers of atypicals; revealing that Seroquel's diabetes problems were known back in 2000; the FDA busting AZ for marketing Seroquel off-label for depression; psychiatrist Gene Combs questioning his own profession; publishing a Christopher Lane op-ed the newspapers wouldn't touch on Prozac violence; waving the flag on post-combat PTSD; pointing out that Sanjay Gupta would make a poor Surgeon-General and pointing out that he lied about kids, suicide and SSRIs on CNN's airwaves; noting the huge placebo effect in kids' depression trials; celebrating Lilly's latest Zyprexa settlement and criminal plea; getting praise from elsewhere in the blogosphere; getting sleazed by Rolling Stone; pressing Lilly to half-apologize to some patients its drug harmed; pointing out how the rest of the world is skeptical about the bipolar child paradigm; being denounced by a defender of the bipolar kids who-ha; and probably some other things as well.

Thanks to all of you for reading this site and for supporting it.