Disinterring the Gemini mailing list archives

It is proposed to resurrect the archives of the Gemini mailing list and make them more readily available.

Orbital Fox Redux: Complete Mirror of Gemini Mailing List

I must say, I am a big skeptic.

Gemini had already solidified by the time the mailing list took off. The discussions on the list helped clarify a few points where the spec was ambiguous, but it became a locus of agitation against Solderpunk's stated or implicit goals.

The list was effectively unmoderated, and at times had an extraordinary volume of contributions that appeared to be in bad faith. There was a contributor who primarily but not exclusively focused on diverting the discussion, who posted 261 times over a 100 day period, including 5 times on Christmas Day. As anyone could join, the contributors included people who didn't use Gemini and were only there to complain about it. Et cetera, et cetera.

At times I suspected the whole thing was a "Steel-Man" exercise to crowdsource all the criticism of the protocol in order to toughen it up, to fix the opponents in a single location, and that the demise of the mailing list server wasn't even an accident.

There were also embarrassing episodes where subscribers to the mailing list seemed to get it into their heads that the mailing list had some influential role over the Gemini ecosystem. In reality, the implementers of Gemini clients and servers choose whether to follow Solderpunk's spec or not, not the vibe on a mailing list. But that didn't stop some people on the mailing list having a go, and Solderpunk had to re-surface from a well-earned retirement to quell the tantrum.

So disinter the mailing list by all means. It's of some historical value. But let's be realistic that there are people who really dislike Gemini, for good reasons and bad; they got a fair hearing, but at considerable opportunity cost.