An example of the viewing a GemText page over the Mercury Protocol using my small-net browser client named: SpaceMonkey.
It is made for GNOME. And, runs on both a Linux based mobile phone and the desktop.
#GeminiProtocol #GNOME #MercuryProtocol #SmallNet #SmallWeb #SmolNet #SmolWeb #SpaceMonkey
I spent the day (off and on) working on updating my Mercury Protocol implemention, in the Go programming-language (golang)
(The Mercury Protocol is the Gemini Protocol without the TLS.)
I wrote it back in 2021. The Go programming-language has changed since then. I updated it accordingly, and did a number of to-do items I planned to do but never got around to.
#GeminiProtocol #golang #MercuryProtocol #SmallNet #SmallWeb #SmolNet #SmolWeb
🖤 calling unix weirdos
I wrote a manifesto about
Gopher, techno-romance, and why small systems beat scale
(“Intimacy in the Forgotten Stack”).
Before I throw it at Hacker News, I want eyes from people who actually love MUDs, telnet, suckless, smallnet, and human-scale software.
Reply or DM if you want the private draft. 🖥️✨
#unix #gopher #foss #smallnet #netart
I like the Gemini Protocol, but — I think too many of the other small-net protocols try to mimic Gemini.
One alternative path that small-net & small-web communities could try is —
Make a new version of the HTTP protocol.
One that includes small-net values.
A small-net HTTP (HTTP/1.4 ?) server could be backwards compatible, such that extant web-browsers could see something (even if the experience is better in a small-net web-browser).
7/
I think some of the hopes for Small-Net & Small-Web from its fans, enthusiasts, and advocates is —
• the return of individuals creating and publishing niche narrowly focused sites,
• removing the modern Gate-Keepers.
These obviously aren't the only desires from those in the Small-Net & Small-Web scene and social-movement, but — I think these 2 are interesting because they are related to the origin of the World-Wide-Web.
6/
The Web wasn't the start of the social-movement to get rid of these (historical) Gate-Keepers.
(The social-movement goes back to at least BBS and other similar networks — i.e., what, for regular people, was before the Internet.)
But the Web did have a big impact on removing these Gate-Keepers. A BIG one!
...
5/
Prior to the Web, if you wanted to publish something you created and reach a mass audience or a community — most of the time you would have to go through the TV industry, the film industry, the radio industry, or the newspaper industry.
These were the Gate-Keepers of the time.
In practice, only those with wealth or power were able to get permission from these Gate-Keepers.
For most of the people in the world — this wasn't an option
...
4/
I think people nowadays are unaware of just how big of a deal that latter part was — being able to write and publish content you created and reach an audience!
It was a huge deal!
As much as the Web was a technology, it was also a social-movement.
Part of the social-movement of the Web getting rid of Gate-Keeper.
...
3/
As I said, these niche web-sites about some narrow topic were one of the draws of the Internet on the 1990s and early 2000s.
Both reading what others wrote about niche topics you also cared about and perhaps also obsessed over.
But also, being able to create your own niche content on the (narrow) interests you obsessed over.
...
2/
These niche web-sites about some narrow topic of the 1990s and early 2000s were one of the draws of the Internet back then.
(And, to put this into context, remember that the mass-Internet, where regular people used the Internet, didn't really start until about the years 1998 to 2001.)
...
@reiver ⊼ (Charles) 
someodd