redterminal.org Gopher Hole

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+title:  Part of the smolnet
+date:   Fri, 16 Feb 2024 05:49:28 +0100
+author: -fab- <fab@redterminal.org>
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In  todays  digital   world  the  world  wide  web   has  become  a
conglomerate or  an oligopoly  of a  few big  players which  try to
squeeze every bit of information out  of the user. We are bombarded
with advertisements and  every step you take is  tracked and stored
in a  big database.  Content is  only produced  to contain  ads and
generate  clicks  - a  perfect  job  for  AI.  And I  predict  most
"content" will  be produced by  AI to this  end in future.  This is
what Cory Doctorow  coined as "Enshittification" and  it gets worse
and worse. But I don't want to go that route.

In 2020  when I  discovered the  Gemini protocol  I already  knew a
little about tildes and pubnixes, but all I knew was that they were
public Unix  or BSD servers, where  the users could try  out, learn
and share  about the system. I  never really thought about  them as
small communities  or ecosystems.  I also knew  about gopher  as an
antique and old protocol that barely outlived the '90s.

My web usage until then was  mainly to get technical information or
documentation. For  other information  search results  were getting
nearly unusable.  Sponsored links  all over  the place  but nothing
really interesting without evil corporate incentives.

So I dug deeper into these  small communities known as "smolnet". I
was  intrigued by  the  Gemini protocol  and  it's properties.  The
decentralized, simple,  private and plain  text based nature  of it
were really refreshing.  And the community and  ecosystem around it
is made mostly of people who are interested in the same things as I
am.  And although  I'm not  a  people person  and I'm  not good  at
keeping long lasting  relationships on a day to day  basis I wanted
to be a  part of the smolnet.  I want to be part  of an alternative
and open internet ecosystem concerned with privacy, diversity, smol
technology, tinkering and new smol solutions.

Most  pubnixes/tildes demand  some  constant  participation in  the
community but I  often take long breaks from  computing and working
on my projects. This is the reason I built my own smolnet server in
2021 - with  Gemini being the first  service I set up.  Then a HTTP
proxy followed and just a few weeks ago I added a finger and gopher
server  to  my  installation.  It's  strange to  set  up  such  old
protocols in  '24 but I know  there are still a  lot of enthusiasts
and geeks  using gopher and all  those other simple tools.  In fact
I've just begun to discover the gopher space because I concentrated
on Gemini before and I quickly realized  that there is a lot of (ok
- often very old) stuff in it.  I'm not sure if it's only because I
just begun to  go down that rabbit hole but  it seems Gemini/gopher
are becoming  attractive to  more and more  people. It  seems folks
really get sick from that WWW dustbin.

It's really  fun to discover  new, exciting and  interesting gopher
holes and Gemini capsules. There is  a lot to learn. No distracting
ads or cookie  banners with their dark patterns.  Just real content
from real people for real people.

And I like  writing my own gemlog or gopher  phlog posts - although
I'm not  a good writer  and I'm not  a native English  speaker. But
I'll write  anyway. And I  recommend anybody  to do the  same about
whatever  topic they  like. You  don't  need to  be a  professional
writer to get some words out.

It's  also  nice to  get  some  feedback  from  time to  time.  Any
comment, advice,  (constructive) criticism  or other input  is very
appreciated. So if you want to drop me some words write me an email
or follow me on mastodon and contact  me there. I would be happy to
hear from you.

So I think I'm part of the smolnet community now - although I might
take some breaks from time to  time, but that's also a feature. One
can also call the smolnet "the slow web".

All in all - Have fun!
-fab-