Why I Only Host on Gemini

2022-01-30

---

The only place where I post and share any significant content on the Internet is my Gemini capsule. I no longer have a public presence on social media, and I don't have a personal site on the Web. I do mirror some of my content over Gopher, specifically on SDF, but that content is only a sample of the content I already host here.

The past week has seen much discussion about the relationship Gemini has with the larger Web. In particular, some people feel that content is intentionally being locked away on Gemini, and a clique is forming on the protocol as a result.

As I've stated previously, I self-host on Gemini. Rob's Capsule is served using a Raspberry Pi 1B rubbing Debian from my own home network. I appreciate that Gemini makes it easy for me to do so, maintaining complete control over the availability of my content and how I want it to be accessed. When I ran Rob's Gopherhole, I also self-hosted.

The primary reason why I don't currently serve a Web site is that Web technology is extremely complicated to me. I only understand the basics of it--and even those I understand on a quite cursory level. I worry that I wouldn't be able to figure out how to configure an HTTP server to run the was I'd like, or that I would misconfigure the server and leave myself exposed to malicious actors. Gemini, being so simple, is far easier to understand, and I can easily tell when I've correctly or incorrectly configured a server.

I also enjoy that what I put on Gemini isn't being endlessly flooded with indexing bots, scanners, and other scraping processes that choke my connection. My Raspberry Pi is low-power and low-bandwidth, and if search results or bots were trying to reach it all the time for one reason or another, I worry the machine wouldn't take the load. And forget posting my e-mail and other contact info in plaintext on the Web; my inbox would drown with spam in days.

All this isn't to say that I don't want a presence in the larger Internet. I just want to be able to control my presence there. I will likely set up an HTTP site eventually; I just need to find the confidence that I won't screw up something important.

---

Up One Level

Home

[Last updated: 2022-01-31]