My name is Rüdiger and I am part of Mimikama.

My name is Rüdiger and I am part of Mimikama.
My name is Rüdiger and I am part of Mimikama.

Mimikama.

When, through a series of fortunate circumstances, I joined the team behind this site in the fall of 2012, many things were still different. The platform was just a year old. There were around 15 people of us, widely spread across mainly Germany, who all did a little research on a voluntary basis in their free time, wrote articles and exchanged ideas with each other in a small Facebook group, the “back office”.

In Vienna, Tom sat in the HQ, which at that time was just a desk in a friend's office.
The website ran in a small WordPress installation, Tom added our articles there, created all the preview images himself, and then posted the posts on our Facebook page.
Maybe 2-3 articles a day. Advertising was placed on the site to cover the costs, and occasionally a small donation was received from readers who wanted to support us. And we had (and still have) a cooperation partner, a sponsor: Kaspersky Lab. Since we are concerned with raising awareness about Internet abuse, phishing, scams and other pitfalls on the Internet, i.e. we want to make the Internet a little more secure, this fit the topic: Protection against viruses and Trojans borders on our area of ​​responsibility or even partially overlaps . Everything was still relatively relaxed, we didn't make any profit from the income, but we didn't really have to pay extra either.

Half a decade later

It's 2017. Somehow everything has changed.
Somehow the story became self-perpetuating. The number of fans has multiplied, and with all our Facebook pages combined we are slowly approaching the million.
The team has grown, there are currently 28 people from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands... Yes, we now even have a Facebook page in Dutch, which is run by a small, dedicated team, where our posts are translated and posted. The number of hits has increased.

We no longer post 2-3 posts a day, but sometimes 30 at peak times. Inquiries on a wide variety of topics are constantly ticking into the inbox, sometimes over 150 emails per day as well as numerous inquiries via a wide variety of channels such as in our “ Facebook group ”. or on our Facebook pages “ mimikama ” and “ Think first-then click ” and via “ Twitter

Tom is still sitting at the HQ in Vienna. But no longer alone, no longer just at a single desk. It has become a real office. Andre, who was also one of the volunteers in the team at the beginning, took what I consider to be a remarkable and great step: he gave up his job in Germany, packed up his tent and moved to Vienna with his wife. Because he thought what we were doing was so important that he wanted to do more.

Tom and Andre in the office in Vienna.
Tom and Andre in the office in Vienna.


Now he sits across from Tom, and when it comes to press and public relations, he has somehow become the “face” of Mimikama.
Then there is Kathrin, our part-time worker, who supports us. The website is no longer just a small WordPress installation - it would be hopelessly overwhelmed. The site runs on its own server in a data center.

We have now become “big” without me even really noticing it.
We are a well-rehearsed team, no, more than that: a family. Because what we do is sometimes pure stress. Fortunately, I personally am self-employed and can, if it's important, spontaneously take an hour or two and research, analyze photos, and write reports. Others in the team do this in the evenings after work. On their breaks, on the way to work. At night. (Yes, even at 3 or 4 a.m. you sometimes get comments on posts in the back office...) The images and videos we see and have to check are sometimes very borderline, and my stomach has already turned .

But even though I may sometimes wish I had other things to do than sit researching and reporting until after midnight, I still enjoy doing it. Because it's somehow important. And because I'm not alone either. Someone from the team is always online and I know that he is sitting in front of an editor window just like me, has what feels like 32,000 tabs open and doing research.

Tom once said so beautifully: “You have to live Mimikama.” I think that sums it up quite well. I don't work for Mimikama, I'm part of it. We are all one big family and are passionate about what we do. We have to do that too, otherwise we would be out of place.

We as a team do not receive any money for our work. Personally, I wouldn't want that either. I do all of this because I know it's right and because I want to do it, because I love this work. And because we are such a great team, some of whom are now also close personal friends. Because we also support each other when someone's nerves get down.

The team is really strong. But it can't do everything...

Server costs.
Office rent. Tom, Andre and Kathrin. Wages and salaries for living expenses. Given what we are now doing and how we do it, we need the control center, our HQ in Vienna. We don't just need it so that TV media can film pretty pictures there for their reports (which has somehow become more and more...), no, we need the office for office things. Tom and Andre are sometimes there for up to 16 hours a day, sometimes every day, and then process the last 50 emails of the day before they go home.

Or Andre is on the way again to some seminars about our work, to interview appointments or other events on the subject of the Internet and media literacy. Then Tom is there alone and sometimes you have to literally kick our “upper thumb”, the “Oid”, so that he can finally go home (… and then be online again from there, comment or “just” finish something make).

Sometimes I'm amazed at what we do and where we show up. We have grown with our tasks, I think you could say that.

Unfortunately, only one thing hasn't grown: revenue.
And to be honest: This is now a real problem. We still have our sponsor Kaspersky, and donations come in every now and then, but that's not nearly enough.

So at some point we started advertising more to finance ourselves. But honestly: it really annoys us, or at least me. We want to offer you, our readers, information, help and inform you about dangers. And don't turn on some very great office coffee machines.

Why do I personally constantly see advertisements for coffee machines? I have no idea… 😉 There are also these “malicious advertisements” every now and then that send you directly to an alleged cell phone winnings page. Damn, we want to warn you about this kind of junk and not send you to such traps too! Unfortunately, we have no influence on what advertising is displayed when you go to the site.

And advertising revenue has really fallen sharply in recent months. Now we could advertise even more. But firstly, it also has its limits, because then you won't be able to visit our site anymore, and we could even understand that! And secondly: No, we don't actually want that. We want to remain as independent as possible.

That’s why we came up with the idea of ​​starting a project on the “Steady” platform. The whole thing works like a subscription: You decide on a monthly support of a few euros - not much for the individual, no more than a cup of coffee in a café or two.

But for us much more: for Mimikama, survival.

We want to continue to debunk false reports, clarify distorted content, and respond to user problems – carefully and thoroughly.
We know this is important to you and many other people. I've been part of the team for a good 5 years now. And I couldn't imagine what it would be like without Mimikama. Don't you either?

Then please take a look at this site and become a “fake hunter” too.

On behalf of Tom, Andre and the whole team: Thank you!


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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )