Fifty years ago Carleton Putnam wrote letters to Southern newspapers about black IQ and evidence for resistance to integration. Putnam was a multimillionaire, a founder of Delta Airlines,, but he found that Southerners were sending donations to what became the Putnam Letters Committee.

So when I was writing propaganda for our side, I sent out a fund mailing.

It didn’t work.

The spontaneous support for Putnam was a unique case.

So I wrote articles here about how, under the BEST circumstances, direct mailing funding works.

You never send out letters to people with money who shout about how they support your cause, the way I did. It is routine that people shout loudly and carry a twig.

I did write about this repeatedly to entertain myself.

I wrote it, as I do so much else, to show you how the world works, knowledge for which I have paid dearly.

I explained how all those people who swear they will fight to the death are BS. I explained how, if you are extremely lucky, you will build a “house list” to keep your outfit going.

One commenter was crying about how he got about 90 petition signatures from almost two thousand new SFers. I expect most of you missed the point of the dozens of pieces I have written on this subject. To get over ninety out of two thousand is, out in reality land, a VERY good return.

If a list you rent gives you a one percent return, you mail it again. A straight repeat mailing across the same list will give you almost exactly half the return the original one did. The people who respond go on your “house list,” people who are interested in contributing to your cause.

I told you all this for a REASON.

I told you this a dozen times for a reason.

No, people will not just “come through.”

I have spent much money and many hours explaining what to do in this real world.

About one percent of BUGS readership ever does ANYTHING.

I took that for granted.

This hurts, this discourages, but it is reality.

Until you learn that this is reality, what I write is pretty useless.