Matter: a kickstartered forum for long-form, investigative journalism

Bobbie Johnson writes,

New crowdfunded science and tech publisher MATTER launches today Earlier this year Boing Boing wrote about a Kickstarter project to produce serious, in-depth, long-form online journalism. Today, after months of work, we're launching with the publication of our first story, "Do No Harm" - an 8,000 report that uncovers a network of people suffering from a fringe condition known as Body Integrity Identity Disorder. People who suffer from BIID are at war with their own bodies - specifically one or more of their limbs, which they feel utterly disconnected from in a way that most of us would struggle to understand.
But the feelings that BIID triggers are so powerful that sufferers are often driven to relieve their pain in the most drastic way - by self-amputation or, in some cases, paying a sympathetic surgeon to cut off the affected limb. Our reporter, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy, unearthed a network of sufferers in America who travel to Asia for off-the-books operations -- and even travelled with one patient as he went to get the most extreme therapy imaginable.
MATTER's stories are available to buy and read through our website or as part of Amazon's Kindle Singles program, for $0.99 -- and anyone purchasing on our site gets a DRM-free ebook as part of the deal (or sign up to receive one story each month and we give you loads of extra goodies like audiobook downloads!)

TK (Thanks, Bobbie!)

(Image: Brian Lee)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Business • crowdfunding • health

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

User 100

Good luck with that—but with the extremely short free preview of articles, and absolutely none that can be read for free (to judge the level of writing), I doubt too many people will risk their money buying articles on good will alone.
- http://anholt.livejournal.com/ Eric Anholt
  
  Having read it (I was a backer), it’s good. Level of quality similar to what you’d expect from things like “Best American Science Writing”.
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

Sorry, there’s no money for investigative journalism anymore. We are now entirely reliant on the supply of young, beautiful polyglot children of privilege deciding to do it for themselves.
musesum

A bit of a pivot on investigative journalism, but this reminds me of a story by Ray Bradbury, called “The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse”: http://books.google.com/books?id=Qz1RynxDZj8C&lpg=PA880&ots=rFb6jwf9qt&dq=matisse%20eye%20ray%20bradbury&pg=PA873#v=onepage&q=matisse%20eye%20ray%20bradbury&f=false
http://www.fatjerry.com Dimmer

But I’d pay an arm and a leg to read a good piece on Body Integrity Identity Disorder.
E T

What is “an 8,000 report”? 8,000 pages, characters or words?
Why not proofread if you want people to pay for it?
Rick Mycroft

What happens when they get a limb amputated, and then have phantom limb syndrome on top of BIID?