Where Do We Go From Here?

2011 Spring Quarterly Fundraiser, Day 6

Given that we’ve been asking our readers to part with their hard-earned cash all week, it’s only fair that we explain what we intend to do with it.

“I suppose I can spare a few bob for you, Baron,” you say, “but what’s it all in aid of?”

Ah, yes… Well… That’s a good question.

I could say, “We’ll continue to do what we’ve been doing, and maybe a little bit more, if we’re lucky.” But that’s not an adequate prospectus.

The problem is, Dymphna and I never set out to do what we’re doing now. We didn’t sit down back in October 2004 and say, “Hey! What say we take up a line of work that requires us to work fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, and pays virtually nothing? Wouldn’t that be keen?”

If we’d been in our right minds, we’d never have undertaken this. But we weren’t, and we did, so here we are.

Looking back on the past three or four years, I realize that we’ve accomplished some of the main goals I had in mind in those early days. The first couple of attempts at Rosetta Stone projects were very difficult — we could find quite a few translators, but we didn’t have an assembly line for video subtitles. Then Vlad Tepes and Kitman joined the team, and our capabilities increased. The difficult tasks became routinized.

Our efforts have tended to create positive feedback loops — as more and more worthy projects materialized in this space, more and more people volunteered to be transcribers, translators, and correspondents. Gates of Vienna gradually snowballed into what it is now: a group effort that depends on the dedicated and tireless work of dozens (maybe hundreds; it’s hard to count) of unpaid volunteers.

My goal is to continue applying the above model, and to improve on it. Exactly what form the improvements will take is hard to say, just as Dymphna and I had no idea in 2004 or 2006 or 2009 where we would be today.

Obviously, this project is more than a blog. It involves planning and coordinating with Counterjihad activist networks in North America, Europe, and Australia. Gates of Vienna is just the reporting mechanism.

A few months ago someone wrote to me and said, “Gates of Vienna acts as the trade journal for the European Counterjihad.” I like that description. Yes, I’d prefer to do more in the American and Australian theaters, but it’s still a good thumbnail of what we’re up to.

So it’s hard to tell what lies ahead — we’ll just take it as it comes.

This time next year Gates of Vienna may have some snazzy new features. Or I may be working at Burger King.

It’s difficult to make predictions.

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