gemini://pennywhether.xyz/articles/beyond

It’s been a month plus change since I started my own Gemini capsule and I’ve had a lot of time to think about the protocol from both the standpoint of someone visiting capsules and someone operating one. I absolutely love the focus on tininess. Keeping the vast majority of content as text really slims down the experience with lightning fast speeds.

That being said, I’ve been wondering how far beyond text the protocol could go. Individual pages will be text with maybe some ASCII art because that’s just the way things work on Gemini, and I’m fine with that. What I’ve been mulling over is how much capsules could function as file delivery systems. People can make bloggy posts till the cows come home, and that would be a ton of fun. However, what about photo galleries? Yes, it would be a long, vertical list of links to image files with text describing the image on the other end of the link, but would that be a bad thing? I wouldn’t mind something like that. People that don’t want it just don’t use it. There are already podcasts and other audio files available to listen to on Gemini, so that’s another option. Again, just put a list of links with a descriptor as to what to expect on the other side. This could go for anything. Videos, documents, ROMs, you name it (at least as far as I know). The problem is that if a download gets interrupted it can’t pick up where it left off. The user has to start over. This means that the larger the file to download, the greater the risk of this happening.

Even if that’s the case, it seems logical that there are workarounds. Obviously, the first order of business would be keeping the file sizes very small so that downloads are completed before there's a chance for a hiccup. If there was one, at least it would still be a tiny file so shouldn’t take long to re-download in that event. Audio files can be kept tiny. Depending on the software, some of it could be reasonably small. Sure, multi gigabyte applications or games would be out of the question. However, if it’s only 20 or 30 megs, chances are a lot more people would be able to download them relatively hassle free.

What’s a big help now is that, for quite a few people, there is much faster internet connections these days. With that, it provides a bit more leeway for the amount of data that can be pushed around. The words “big” and “small” are relative terms compared to what a persons download speeds and data caps are to an extent. Some types of files have gotten progressively larger over the last 20 years or so, but as infrastructure has improved from dial up to things like fibre, this has made it easy for people to continue downloading these files without a hitch. We’ve seen video go from lo-fi 4:3 all the way up to 4K. Video games used to considered huge if they were more than a few gigs, but now they can be 100-200GB on the higher end. All the while, internet infrastructure has been able to keep up with it.

The thing with Gemini is that it shows that someone doesn’t necessarily need huge file sizes to get things done. One of it’s big draws is the lack of bloat. Since the vast majority of capsules are just very simple text, they’re amazingly tiny and load in an instant. Meanwhile, that hefty infrastructure is still there and unlikely to go away. With that in mind, could this be used to the advantage of someone running a capsule?

A lot of people who have hopped on Gemini thus far have been vocal in their opinion that it should be text-only. For the most part, it’s inherently build to be that way. That doesn’t mean people cannot or should not express themselves in other ways in that realm. If they want to do audio, let them do audio. If they want to do video, let them do video. The latter only has caveats that people making something like that would have to tailor the video to be small enough to be downloaded quickly lest the connection be interrupted. This is where the modern infrastructure comes in, as it takes some of the burden off of this problem, at least in modern large cities. So long as the video isn’t some sort of 4K monstrosity, or sporting an overly long runtime, the chances of it being successfully downloaded should be reasonably good. I think people on Gemini would be fine with that as well. Most here seem to embrace a simpler, lo-fi approach to things. Videos of a smaller file size in 480p or even in some old timey 4:3 ratio would be just fine for getting ideas across for the most part. Outside of maybe someone explaining some programming and needing the image clear enough so that viewers can read what the presenter is doing, lo-fi would likely be plenty serviceable.

The same could be true of downloadable files. 100GB game downloads just aren’t going to happen on Gemini, but small applications should be very doable. When I need to grab a piece of software off of the web, much of the time it’s actually quite small, often clocking in at no more than 50 megs. These are files that are downloaded in seconds on typical modern internet infrastructure. I’d be fairly optimistic that these files could just as easily be downloaded by going through Gemini for someone in my situation. How many applications on Github could just as easily be downloaded over Gemini? I’d imagine a decent amount. Maybe some of these could be mirrored in this realm. Part of me wonders if old game ROMs up to around maybe the SNES or GBA could be put up for download on Gemini with little trouble. Most of those files should easily be small enough to download without a problem.

If someone decided to go this route with their capsule, it would obviously make running it a lot more expensive. Moving those bigger files around will cost money. So, it would be a question of how much someone was willing to fork out for their capsule, and wouldn’t be for everyone. Nevertheless, sites like these have existed for years on the web. Similar could exist on Gemini. Just simple, non-commercial capsules where people could get small files, be they video, software, or audio.

Infrastructure nowadays has shifted to accommodate the bloated web, at least in the West. The hardware is already in place, so why not have Gemini operators take advantage of this? Their capsules still adhere to being simple, text-based affairs. However, they can just as well provide all of the other file formats I’ve discussed here. They just have to be careful about file size in order to avoid download interruptions. One thing I’ve never liked about places like Sound Cloud or YouTube is that everything is embedded, so users are forced to experience media on those sites (yes, YouTube-dl helps get around this). They can’t just download the files and fire them up on their own terms using whatever media player they prefer. This would be doable on Gemini provided the file stays small, all while users need not worry about annoying ads, trackers, and who knows what else.

While Gemini is in a lot of ways a reaction to bloat and other obnoxious practices on the Web, there’s still a place for things beyond text. It could be a realm of small files be it music, simple programs, podcasts, and even video if created in a thoughtful way that take the limitations of Gemini into account. I certainly appreciate the return to embracing text, but I won’t complain if people try to build upon it. There is a place for audio, video, and software here. People just need to be smart how they go about it.