I haven't taken part in this study but I've done the Diet Study (see
https://tipsforme.wordpress.com/2015/06/17/mendus/ for a write up of my experience) and I've just done the d-ribose study.
Josh who organises the studies seems very genuine. Any of us can suggest new studies and help organise improved protocol. This is a voluntary, patient led thing with a lot of potential. It is also fairly new and some things will need to be worked out as we go along. I'm not sure how realistic it is to centrally supply the placebos etc, probably one person would have to volunteer and just do that role.
It is probably important to place this within the Quantified Self movement. Usually we read research papers in order to find out what could be useful for us as an individual. The rigour of the protocol and stats are important
because they help me assess how likely the results are to apply to me. I'd want to see large scale, double blinded placebo trials if I wasn't a participant in the trial. However, with Mendus I do the trial myself and see my own stats. I know if I kept the placebo or not. This is really valuable personalised information and it then doesn't matter to me too much what the results were for the other people.
On the other hand, Mendus also has the potential to produce respected science, with the support of the ME community. The main advantages are not having to wait for research and it doesn't require funding. Think of how slow official research is. I think Nancy Klimas said it usually takes 3 years from an idea to getting funding (if you get funding), the research may take 3 years, 2 years more to publish findings. It seems to take about a month for Mendus ideas to get going, maybe a month to complete. In 2 months you go from idea to personal results. I'd choose that over 7-8 years waiting for results that may not apply to me...