Comment by ergotofwhy on 04/07/2020 at 18:49 UTC

14 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)

View submission: A look at the Gemini protocol: a brutally simple alternative to the web

I've been thinking about something like this, cool to see someone is already on it.

I think that a gemini browser (or browser plugin for viewing over Gemini protocol) that users set their own css for is a great idea. Server-only code keeps folk more secure (no client side scripts). No cookies, unless the user wants to pre-specify a payload for certain gemini sites.

Loading images should be a user-specific setting, too. Off by default so designers have to consider that.

Might be hard to figure out some stuff like shopping, but i suppose this could just link to the regular web for that?

This would also be good for the blind. Lots of websites have tons of bloat that makes navigation via screen reader really hard

Replies

Comment by rubygeek at 04/07/2020 at 20:16 UTC

26 upvotes, 2 direct replies

The problem with this is that is that this is not what content providers for the most part wants to show you.

Because if content providers wanted to just send you the text and some basics, the can do that just fine with HTML today.

The ones that would do it **already do** for the most part. You can often browse their sites just fine with Lynx you want a guarantee they're not doing nefarious stuff.

Given the subject, https://prog21.dadgum.com/[1][2] is a good example - it has some styles, but look at the network tab in your browser and reload - 4.3K + a favicon. No extra files. Great content.

1: https://prog21.dadgum.com/

2: https://prog21.dadgum.com/

But most people posting stuff online want at least *some* of the modern niceties, and few of them will republish their content in a more basic format like this. People might have some luck in pushing hard for a resurgence in more semantic markup so that it's possible to e.g. index specifically sites that are likely to render well with clients with the kind of restrictions you mention turned on.

But something like Gemini is unlikely to ever be more than a tiny little niche.

Of course there are a *lot* of people online - a tiny little niche relative to all of humanity might well be a large enough and interesting enough community for a lot of people.

Comment by CupCakeArmy at 05/07/2020 at 09:38 UTC

3 upvotes, 0 direct replies

There is a setting in every Browser to disable pictures. Nobody is forcing you..