gemini://bbs.geminispace.org/u/mifuyne/13880

I'm new, not just to the BBS but to Gemini-space itself. Ended up hopping around different hosting services and I've settled on one. You can find it at the link below (also on my user page):

So far, I'm using the capsule as a place where I put my game reviews, and a tinylog. I plan on using that capsule for any of my future open source projects' devlogs. Maybe some other creative/experimental output will show up there, too.

I'm curious, besides the privacy issues of the Web, why did y'all choose to use the gemini protocol, or hang out in Gemini-space?

@mifuyne Welcome! It's always good to see new people checking this place out.

I came to the smolweb space through Gopher, like many others did. Gopher gave me a lot of what I was looking for - a slice of the internet not requiring a hideously complicated web browser accessing a bolted-together web of bad software.

But still, Gopher is missing some things that people have come to expect. No standard for encryption is a big one.

Having discovered Gemini, I thought I'd try my hand at writing a client. I'm not a programmer by profession, but still I managed it... and I was floored at how simple it was.

That simplicity, together with the neat people it attracts, keep me here. :)

> I'm curious, besides the privacy issues of the Web, why did y'all choose to use the gemini protocol, or hang out in Gemini-space?

Well, I found about Gemini during my suckless phase, but fortunately I’m over it now. So I’ll answer why I stayed here even after this phase:

I’m serious over-thinker and when given possibility to make my own CSS theme or add more functionality to blog I’ll never write any article and spend all my time tweaking guts of my blog until complete burnout. Tested and proven.

I’m consider web super-bloated tech. Even now when I’m over my de-bloat-everything phase.

Web seems like actually being owned by Google. Google is making the most popular browser engine (blink) and is financing the other one (Firefox with Gecko). And Mozilla is pretty controversial too. At this point web looks like corporate plaything and I don’t like cyberpunk becoming reality.

I stay for the simplicity and small community feel. I grew up in a small town and the regular web feels like a giant metropolis where I can't think.

I'm also a hobby programmer so working with text feels more approachable to me.

@zetamacs Thank you! Gopher was well before my time 😳 and by the time I heard about it, it felt like a relic of the past that wasn't around anymore.

Knowing that gopher is still around as well, it feels like exploring a whole new (digital) world. Well, two of them, gemini and gopher 🙂

I actually found out about Gemini protocol because of this Hackaday article:

Also, still learning the flow of interacting with this capsule, and the browser I'm using! I hit enter instead of shift+enter (for a new line), LOL.

@Aelspire I get that sentiment, feeling like the web have grown into this bloated mess. I wouldn't say I'm trying to de-bloat by being here, but often times the web just feels like too much. Feels like there's too focus on looks, not enough on substance.

That said, I think web tech in itself helps democratizes the software development field. Now people don't have to worry about compiling for a wide range of targets, or figuring out how to distribute their work since distribute is part of it. I know it's not the only solution (especially the first point), but it is the most visible and most accessible right now. I do hope something better will come along that won't also quash the spirit of human ingenuity.

@gritty Ooh, Lemmy. That's an aggregator/discussion board I haven't thought about in a few months!

Simplicity and small community vibe is definitely why I'm still around too. It helps cut down on the overthinking that I've mentioned in my other comment, and I don't feel as...inconsequential.

I get what you mean about working closer to text as a programmer. I think there's something about working with just text that makes me feel more productive, more focused. It makes me want to write more. I suspect it's because the screen isn't throwing all sorts of panels and icons and other text at me. Distraction-free.

@oldernow You are living up to your username! I had to look up the brands you name-dropped and...I hate to admit this but they were before I even existed! My family's first home PC ran on Windows 98...I think. It may have been 95. I remember when the Web still felt more like the "Wild West", but with more pictures. Planet Oasis was the site I returned to, almost on a daily basis.

You mentioned Medium, and it got me thinking how much better the content there would be on gemini instead. A lot of the content is just text anyway. Substack is another one that comes to mind that would translate well over here. Just the content though. I get the feeling trying to monetize access to said content would not go over well on gemini. I'd agree with that, it would go against what I feel is the spirit of the space and community that's coalesced around this protocol and others like it. At least HTTP proxies are a thing!

Thank you all for your responses. I hope others will drop by and respond as well! It's interesting to see what brings you all here and your experiences 😁

I also hope this format of replying isn't too unwieldy. If it's better that I separate my replies instead of posting it into one big comment, I'll do that in future replies.

I avoided making too many comments to my own thread. Felt it was bad form. That it would look like I'm artificially inflating the sense of activity.

Hi mifuyune. I'm an old man and grew up with the terminal. As much fun as the late 1990s Web, HTML always worked in plain text. This vanished when CSS and JS became required.

Gemini reminds me of the Web I grew up with. It's simple enough where one person can understand and maintain it. The lack of graphic and layout features means there's less to distract yourself with so you can just focus on making content available.

It's also a smaller community. I think with smaller groups there's less desire to push people out for petty reasons.

@istvan Honestly, the more time I spend in gemini-space, the more I appreciate the simplicity of it. While I don't see myself turning away from the Web any time soon, it's nice to have a refuge from all that 😊

Hello There!

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