The work of The Lunduke Journal brings me a tremendous amount of joy -- I absolutely love what I do. The shows, the articles, the comics... all of it.
But I would be lying if I said the challenges were not, at times, more than a little daunting.
When every other prominent Tech News outlet is already struggling to stay in business... I decide to make it even harder by swimming upstream. I turn down every penny of advertising and sponsorship offered so that The Lunduke Journal can always report the truth. The traditional, most used avenue for funding a publication... gone.
That, alone, would be enough of a challenge. But it doesn't end there.
Big Tech doesn't like Lunduke
Big Tech outlets fear my reporting -- and for obvious reasons. Many Tech firms now have a hard "No talking to Lunduke" policy for their PR, Marketing, and Executive teams. Shoot. I know of several companies that have had meetings just to strategize about how to "deal with Lunduke".
While I have a loyal network of internal sources at most of these companies, not being able to talk directly (and openly) with their PR teams presents significant challenges.
Along those same lines, many companies have exerted pressure on other organizations... "encouraging" them to not work with me.
Conferences, YouTubers, and Podcasters have all been leaned on, by multiple tech companies, to not publicly interact with me and the stories I report at The Lunduke Journal. They are all at risk of losing valuable (and much needed) sponsorship dollars if they were to, say, book me on their shows. Or give me a keynote slot at their conference (something which would otherwise be a noteworthy boost to attendance for them and, hence, a no-brainer).
Open Source, Censorship, and Politics.
Leadership of Open Source projects are under heavy pressure, by political extremists, to not interact with The Lunduke Journal in any way. Interviews, and even answering simple questions, are met with threats (of multiple kinds) from these extremists. And, not wanting to risk the success and stability of their projects, many Open Source leaders simply capitulate -- they give in to the extremists demands.
Again... if it stopped there... woof. That would be more enough problems. But it continues.
Those same political extremists, along with representatives from many Tech Firms, are dedicated to silencing me in as many ways as they can.
Often this means simple censorship of Lunduke Journal stories -- almost always deleted and banned across forums, Hacker News, Reddit, and many other sites.
In other cases, there are groups who scour the Web for posts which mention or link to Lunduke Journal articles or videos. And, when found, these groups will contact the author who mentioned the word "Lunduke" and heavily encourage (read: bully) them into removing that reference. (Shoot. I can't even sneeze without getting banned or censored on YouTube nowadays.)
Sometimes it's for politlcal reasons, sometimes business reasons... regardless the number of people, organizations, and companies who adamantly want to silence The Lunduke Journal grows by the day.
They want to not only silence the facts that I report... by my opinions as well. They view my words as "dangerous"... as an existential threat.
I do it gladly
In all honesty, I'm not looking for any sort of pity here. These are significant challenges, to be sure. But I tackle them willingly.
In fact, in a way... it is gratifying. Because it means I'm doing something right.
Just the same, the challenges are significant. And I absolutely cannot do this alone.
In order to succeed -- to be able to continue getting these stories to the public -- I need all of you. Specifically for two critical things:
- Funding. That one is obvious. Without ad revenue or Big Tech funding, I am reliant entirely on subscriptions and contributions. If you have a few extra coins jangling around, I can put them to good use.
- Spreading the word. That might be less obvious... but it is no less important. If you see an article or show that you like... tell people. Post it to social media. Put it on forums. Submit it to any website you frequent. If they want to silence The Lunduke Journal... we simply can't let them.
So, if you haven't subscribed yet, now's the time. The more people that subscribe (or simply do one-time donations), the more Lunduke Journal articles and shows I can afford to release for free (without being subscriber exclusives). And -- along the same lines -- the less time I need to spend thinking about funding, the more time I can spend writing articles, investigating new stories, and recording shows.
To those of you who are already subscribers: Thank you!
I've said it before, and I'll say it again... this truly would not be possible without you.
