This Coming Tuesday We Turn 17
THE reason our site has been relatively successful can be summarised in one word: trust. Novell insiders trusted us enough to tell us inside secrets/information and nowadays we get many leaks pertaining to patents, Microsoft etc.
Constantly writing new material, producing videos etc. is something that relies on original material, based on otherwise-suppressed information. Without that, there's not much point writing (rehash, repetition, parroting press releases). Over time we grew a community and a network of technical means for communicating with sensitive sources, assuring confidentiality while maintaining a level of transparency, both inwards and outwards. There is a modest degree of trust within, not just with the outside world.
Of course Microsoft-connected vandals try to ruin the trust, but they aren't succeeding. They always try to muddy the water, lie, impersonate etc. EPO crooks tried a lot of intimidation too, but it always backfired, so they stopped doing it. They almost completely stopped trying in 2015 or 2016.
We still have many stories in the pipeline. They will come out when the time is right, or even 'optimal' by some criteria. We don't publish things prematurely.
The original material, the "exclusives", helped us build status and our 100% source protection record speaks for itself. Being technical people, we know how to protect people online. We never spiked or removed stories. It's hard to censor us and we never got sued for anything. 17 years! We're getting more robust each year.
In the coming days we'll have some more exclusives to mark the 17-year milestone. It's a special mark. We'll reach 20 for sure. 30? Maybe. We'll see. 30 years is a very long time. The Open Web died within less than 30 years. █
