Revive your old Tinylog - Or create a new one
Author: -fab- <fab@redterminal.org>
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
Published on: Sun, 30 Mar 2025 03:28:52 +0200
Last updated: Thu, 03 Apr 2025 19:45:00 +0200
I want to bring some awareness to the Tinylog protocol in the hope that more people will have one and actually use it. It's such a nice protocol but only few people are using them regularly - at least at the moment. If you're just looking for an up-to-date list of Tinylog URLs, look here:
Tinylogs URL list page
Please consider having a Tinylog or revive your existing, orphaned one. Tinylogs are a lot of fun but they should have more regular users. And if you've created a shiny new Tinylog or your log isn't in the list, send me an email with the URL, so I can add it to the list. I'll keep it as up-to-date as I can. So keep an eye on the list.
A tinylog is simply a gemini (.gmi) file on your capsule, typically named 'tinylog.gmi' (not necessarily). The format of the file is specified in bacardi55's RFC
barcadi55's gemini-tinylog-rfc - The tinylog file format
This is an example Tinylog with Title, description and metadata. Words in round brackets are comments:
*EDIT*: There was a faulty date format in this example. Thanks to Sandra from idiomdrottning.org for making me aware of this!
# Stream of short notes (title)
Here you'll find some short notes about thoughts, ideas and what's going on (description).
author: @YourName@example.com (or just 'YourName')
avatar: ✌️ (placed before your name in GTL)
license: CC0 (License of your notes)
## 2025-03-30 04:35 CEST (date)
This is my first tinylog entry. It can have links, 3rd level subheadings and also
preformatted text. But the date must start as 2nd level heading with 2 "##"
The date format MUST NOT have a different form. It must be like this:
Every new post is placed at the beginning of the file just after the meta data.
Replying to another post
You can also reply to another post:
## 2025-03-29 15:14 CET
[=> link to original entry (nearly never used)]RE: @author[@capsule.tld] <Date of the original article>
> Qoute of the original posts
Your answer comes here.
GTL: Gemini Tiny Logs
GTL is a program written in Go to follow a list of subscribed Tinylogs. The repository is archived but the application will surely continue to work in future. You can find it on Github:
GTL Github repository (www)
Just install Go and git and build the sources
git clone https://github.com/bacardi55/GTL
cd GTL
go build
Then copy the executable "gtl" to a place in your path, "~/bin/" for example.
And here's my '~/.config/gtl/gtl.toml' configuration. Of course I have already corrected the date format, which can be edited in the file.
# Path to subscribed tinylogs:
subscribed_data = "~/.config/gtl/subs"
# Date display format
date_format = "2006-03-25 15:04 MST"
# Log file:
log_file = "/dev/null"
# Maximum number of entries showed in cli mode. If --limit is used, it will overide this setting.
# Will be ignored in tui mode.
cli_limit = 10
# Mode: either cli or tui
mode = "tui"
# If false, standard ascii characters will be used.
tui_status_emoji = true
## TUI options:
# ctrl+n opens $EDITOR to add a new tinylog entry
# ctrl+r copies a reply stub to the clipboard and opens $EDITOR
allow_edit = true
tinylog_path = "~/Work/redterminal.org/gemini/tinylog.gmi"
# Path to script to be executed after the edition is done.
# This script needs to be executable.
# Mine just rsync's the diff of my local capsule to my server
post_edit_script = "~/Work/redterminal.org/gemini_up.sh"
post_edit_refresh = true
# Limit the number of entries displayed in TUI.
# Indicate 0 for all entries.
tui_max_entries = 0
# Clipboard config
tui_copy_stub_clipboard = true
tui_show_stub = true
# Bookmarks (only available via TUI for now):
bookmarks_enabled = false
bookmarks_file_path = "~/.config/gtl/bookmarks.json"
bookmarks_reverse_order = true
With a completely set up GTL you can follow all your subscribed Tinylogs and also add reply posts easily to your own Tinylog, with the reply line and a quote of the original post in the clipboard, so you just need to paste it in your $EDITOR before the last entry at the top and you're good to go. Of course you need to have "xclip" and "xsel" installed to use this feature.
Final Words
So I hope that Tinylogs will get a revival like when they were invented in 2021. I really like them and they're a good method to exchange small notes and reply to them. And with the GTL application it's easy to follow all the Tinylog updates other people make and create new entries.
If you have any questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to write an email to fab@redterminal.org. I'll be glad to help!
Create a Tinylog, they're getting way too less love.
All in all - Have fun!
-fab-
--
Back to index
Homepage
Send me a gemini-mention!
Or write me an email.