As you may have seen, especially if you are Canadian, the Rob Ford Crackstarter reached its $200,000 goal at some point around 4 p.m. yesterday, as I was busy fielding phone calls while trying to steer my young children away from a very hot grill without spilling my beer. What happens now?

The Crackstarter is now closed to further donations. We pulled in a total of $201,254 from 8,388 people. I haven't contacted Indiegogo, the service that hosted the campaign, yet to investigate precisely when we get the money, in what format, etc. (As I write this, the Indiegogo web site is not cooperating with my attempts to get that info.) I do know that Indiegogo and PayPal extract certain fees before turning the proceeds over to us; we will post an update announcing the total amount that has been released to us as soon as we get it.

As for the purchase: We are working on it. As we noted before the campaign concluded, we lost contact with the people who have custody of the video. I updated the Indiegogo campaign site yesterday morning to reiterate that there had been no movement on that front, and am repeating it here right now. You won't hear anything more from us about our attempts to get the video for some time. This will be a very delicate transaction. If the people who are in possession of the video are reading this: Please get in touch with our mutual friend, or with me at john@gawker.com. We did what you asked.

As we initially pledged, if we are unable to consummate a deal and obtain the video, we will donate 100% of the proceeds to a Canadian nonprofit that addresses the consequences of substance abuse. We haven't selected an institution yet. We will do so when and if the time comes.

I am frankly shocked and heartened that this actually happened. We are going to try very hard to make it work. Don't smoke crack.

[Image by Jim Cooke]