Lots Of Ideas on the Forum: So Crowdfund

[hellouser]

Well, frick, I just learned that pretty much any possible means of getting other forum members' contact information is against the forum's posting rules and terms of serivce, including telling other members to contact you on another forum. And the moderation of this forum is apparently pretty speedy. So uh...what the heck are we gonna do?

Any help with this, mods? I don't want to sound like I'm against you, I'm sure it's a lot of work to keep a forum in good shape...but surely there must be some reasonable way that members can get in contact with one another when it's for a purpose that I would have to think is within the spirit of this particular forum in the first place?

Its just another reason why we as a hair loss community have failed. Instead of coming together, we've limited our resources.

[hellouser]

I thought we could send PM's in this forums but it seems it is not an available option... Ok, when you are online let me know replying to this thread and I will confirm you I'm watching the thread in that moment with another reply.

I'll be online tonight between 11pm and Midnight EST Time (I'm in Toronto).

[Winston]

Please Note

Please note: Posting of your email at any time will violate our terms of service and your account will be immediately placed into moderation, even if you post it for only a minute and then remove it, we will still receive immediate notification that you have violated the Forum Posting Rules & Terms of Service of this forum.

[Axel]

Ouch

Please note: Posting of your email at any time will violate our terms of service and your account will be immediately placed into moderation, even if you post it for only a minute and then remove it, we will still receive immediate notification that you have violated the Forum Posting Rules & Terms of Service of this forum.

I've just read this... didnt know it is against ToS..

[garethbale]

Please note: Posting of your email at any time will violate our terms of service and your account will be immediately placed into moderation, even if you post it for only a minute and then remove it, we will still receive immediate notification that you have violated the Forum Posting Rules & Terms of Service of this forum.

Hi Winston

Is there any way for members on here to contact each other? Could it even be done through you as you presumably have everyone's registration details?

It seems bizarre that people aren't allowed to contact each other.

[Winston]

As per our Forum Posting Rules & Terms of Service, discussions pertaining to forum functions or moderator actions should be addressed to us via the contact form and not via posts on the forum itself, these type of postings will not be hosted on the forum. Please note, any posts pertaining to this from this point on will be removed.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

[hellouser]

As per our Forum Posting Rules & Terms of Service, discussions pertaining to forum functions or moderator actions should be addressed to us via the contact form and not via posts on the forum itself, these type of postings will not be hosted on the forum. Please note, any posts pertaining to this from this point on will be removed.

Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

Where is the contact form?

[pocketmerlin]

Contact Form

Bottom of the web page. Just filled it out myself.

[pocketmerlin]

OK, I got a response from a moderator, and they said that if we got a crowdfunding page going and submitted it to them for approval, if they evaluate it and determine that it is legitimate (100% of funds will go to hair loss), we will be able to post a link to it on the forum.

Kickstarter apparently isn't the right venue for medical research-type projects...I'm thinking maybe Indiegogo?

I could start up the page if you guys wanted me to, but I was just wondering whether you guys had any ideas about how make a page that shows itself as credible/trustworthy? I know Indiegogo does things to try to weed out shady stuff...but other than that, the only other way I know of to show legitimacy is by connecting the fundraiser to a nonprofit organization...but it takes months to start a nonprofit because you need approval from the IRS to get tax-exempt status.

[hellouser]

OK, I got a response from a moderator, and they said that if we got a crowdfunding page going and submitted it to them for approval, if they evaluate it and determine that it is legitimate (100% of funds will go to hair loss), we will be able to post a link to it on the forum.

Kickstarter apparently isn't the right venue for medical research-type projects...I'm thinking maybe Indiegogo?

I could start up the page if you guys wanted me to, but I was just wondering whether you guys had any ideas about how make a page that shows itself as credible/trustworthy? I know Indiegogo does things to try to weed out shady stuff...but other than that, the only other way I know of to show legitimacy is by connecting the fundraiser to a nonprofit organization...but it takes months to start a nonprofit because you need approval from the IRS to get tax-exempt status.

Axel and I are going to be ironing out the details, we'll have a plan of action soon, but we'll need some contributors that are SERIOUS about this.

A simple page on a kickstarter-like site isn't anywhere near good enough. We need to go balls out and reach out to everyone we possibly can and show off a COMPLETE package. Strategy is going to be key.... no room for error. Luckily I work in marketing and advertising and Axel has experience with web development. We'll keep everyone in the loop.

Keep the ideas coming! Speaking of which:

Has anyone has seen Movember? Its a new age prostate cancer awareness and fundraiser initiative that uses a bit of a comical approach: everyone in the month of November must grow out their mustache... women too if they have the foomanchu, lol. Anyway, its gained wild popularity and has been quite succesful, here's the US website:

http://us.movember.com/

Its pretty sad though that it took a hipster movement like that to get any kind of awareness for mens health... the NFL dedicated an entire month to Breast Cancer... I've yet to see any female league (ie; WNBA) or even men's league try and raise awareness for mens health.

In any case, I was thinking we could use a similar approach and have people do something with their hair to show support. Perhaps getting something cool designed or whatever on the side or back... think of Dennis Rodman when he joined the Chicago Bulls in 1996, he had the actual Bulls logo on the back of his head in his hair.

We could try and implement a catchy engaging aspect to our cause.

Thoughts? Maybe we could expand on this and do something else?

[Thinning87]

Once the funds are donated, who will manage the allocation to which projects? Who will decide which projects are more promising?

[hellouser]

Once the funds are donated, who will manage the allocation to which projects? Who will decide which projects are more promising?

We will. We'll have to come up with some kind of priority list as to what makes sense to fund now or later.

[Thinning87]

We will. We'll have to come up with some kind of priority list as to what makes sense to fund now or later.

We could try to get some sort of impartial, reputable academia that sympathizes with the cause to do third party evaluation for different proposals.

The proposals could be submitted on an open website and could come from all over the world. As long as they comply with certain format guidelines and financial/legal constraints (e.g. You work in this given country, follow given transparency rules, don't pay yourself $$$ to do nothing, work toward certain milestones, etc.).

A small group of trusted, smart, well known people from academia should manage the money. It shouldn't be too much of a democratic process because 99% of us don't know shit (me first). It should be the kind of thing such as "if you believe in it you donate but let the people who know what they're doing take charge".

If you can convince 100,000 people to donate $10 or more you start getting attention fast

[Javert]

We will. We'll have to come up with some kind of priority list as to what makes sense to fund now or later.

Histogen!.. Just kidding.. Not really

[hellouser]

Histogen!.. Just kidding.. Not really

The closest treatment we had was Aderans with only ONE trial left for clearance from the FDA and a north american release in which even Aderans was hopeful would happen NEXT YEAR. Then the pig boardmembers axed the entire project and decided to keep making money off of wigs and standard FUT through bosley.

I'd like to see Aderans revived but the fact that it got their funds pulled makes a MAJOR dent in their timeline now.