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XMRV research: does it matter if WPI don't do any more?

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Provocative question! But I've just looked at the four most recent threads in the XMRV subforum and of 38 people posting, only 4 have signatures promoting the Vivint contest that could win the WPI hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I find this strange! Maybe everyone is voting and being quiet about it but in case anyone has technical problems, please post them on the main Vivint thread and we will try to help you.

WPI is currently front-runner for the $100,000 prize in its region so winning isn't pie in the sky; and it's fourth place nationally for the $250,000 prize. But we must start voting now and in as large a number as we can if we're going to hold the regional prize and have a shot at the national. Other charities are trying hard to catch up!

It takes five minutes to set up a Facebook account to vote if you don't already have one (and you don't have to use it for anything else), and 10 seconds a day to vote for WPI on the Vivint site.

Creating a signature for your posts to spread the word on the forums and help set voting for WPI as the norm for our community takes two minutes (just copy my own or another Vivint signature and dump it in the appropriate text box, instructions here)

If you need any more persuading, Cort has written an excellent article on how WPI is likely to make its winnings work much harder than face value, here.

This may seem the wrong subforum for my post but I'm serious about my question: do we want more XMRV research from the WPI and if so, do we want it badly enough to do a small thing to get it?
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
I have voted twice so far. I will vote now for the third time come to think of it.

Thanks

Great stuff, mark! And if you fancy a new signature to encourage others to do the same, my own very tasteful one is available for copying... ;)
 

camas

Senior Member
Messages
702
Location
Oregon
I'm voting every day through both mine and my partner's accounts. It takes all of 30 seconds!
 

omerbasket

Senior Member
Messages
510
I didn't have it in my signature until today, nor was I voting for them daily (I just voted once or twice, I think). That is because I thought they were well behind and didn't have a good chance at winning a prize, at least a significant one. Now that I know that they do have a good chance to win a significant prize here, I would do my best to vote for them daily. I also added their link to my signature.
I have to say that I think I did quite an effort for the WPI in the Chase competition, and the sort-of-disappointment from that competition probably got me to be much less involved here.

However, that is to not be mistaken as an indicator as to what I is the importance of the WPI work in my opinion. Because I think that the importance of their work is huge: First, regarding establishing the connection between XMRV and ME/CFS - their work can do a lot about it, and it's also possible that they would find out why others are not finding it; Second, their work is very important in the aspect of establishing causality of XMRV in ME/CFS; And in my opinion perhaps the most important thing right now: I get the feeling that if XMRV would be proven to be causing ME/CFS (and perhaps even if it would not be proven to be causing ME/CFS, but it would be proven to be causing other human diseases), their work would be extremely precious, as I tend to believe that they gather a lot of important knowledge regarding how the virus can be transmitted, how the virus works, what does it do to cells, potential routes to treat it etc. etc. etc.

Therefore, I think that their work on XMRV has a gigantic importance. Besides that, even if it would not be about XMRV, it's very very important that they would get funds to study ME/CFS and other neuroimmune diseases.

Edit: And for some reason my signature does not show up here...
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
I didn't have it in my signature until today, nor was I voting for them daily (I just voted once or twice, I think). That is because I thought they were well behind and didn't have a good chance at winning a prize, at least a significant one. Now that I know that they do have a good chance to win a significant prize here, I would do my best to vote for them daily. I also added their link to my signature.
I have to say that I think I did quite an effort for the WPI in the Chase competition, and the sort-of-disappointment from that competition probably got me to be much less involved here.

Thanks, omerbasket - that's very useful feedback and I've edited my signature to push the fact that WPI is extremely strong in this contest!

Thanks for trying with your signature! I can't see it either. Silly question, but you did hit "Save signature", not "Preview signature"? I expect them to be the other way round and am always surprised to see "Save signature" where it is.
 

Daffodil

Senior Member
Messages
5,875
i vote daily and have sent emails off to everyone i know, requesting votes! i am gonna bug them daily. even if they dont care about CFS, most will care about autism
 

markmc20001

Guest
Messages
877
Great stuff, mark! And if you fancy a new signature to encourage others to do the same, my own very tasteful one is available for copying... ;)

Haha. I'm doing a bit of advocacy with my signature. Advocating for a little reality check.

You are welcome to try mine if you would like. ;)

I tried to vote today again, but realized I have to wait another day. I'll keep voting though.

Thanks for getting the word out. Money for the WPI is great!
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
i vote daily and have sent emails off to everyone i know, requesting votes! i am gonna bug them daily. even if they dont care about CFS, most will care about autism

That's a good idea on autism! That's great that you're voting daily. :D

If you fancy a signature like mine (or possibly a more tasteful one of your own!) to advertise the contest on Phoenix Rising, it literally takes a couple of minutes and is a nice creative thing to do - I'd like to see them all over the forum so that people realise that voting is the thing we're all doing and that they should join in! Instructions are in the link in my first post on this thread. ;)
 

omerbasket

Senior Member
Messages
510
Thanks, omerbasket - that's very useful feedback and I've edited my signature to push the fact that WPI is extremely strong in this contest!

Thanks for trying with your signature! I can't see it either. Silly question, but you did hit "Save signature", not "Preview signature"? I expect them to be the other way round and am always surprised to see "Save signature" where it is.
Hi Sasha - thanks!
I did hit the "save signature" button... I don't know why it doesn't show up... :confused:
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
And now it does show up...

Freaky! It wasn't there an hour ago!

Anyway, thanks so much for making a signature - I think it's very important to show everyone on the forums that others are voting and they should too! :thumbsup:
 

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
Started voting yesterday. Thanks for the reminder Sasha, and ive copied your signature too!
 

omerbasket

Senior Member
Messages
510
Freaky! It wasn't there an hour ago!

Anyway, thanks so much for making a signature - I think it's very important to show everyone on the forums that others are voting and they should too! :thumbsup:
100% agree :Retro smile:
Thank you so much, Sasha, for the all of the effort that you are making :thumbsup: