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	gopher rings
	August 11th, 2018
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	From ze libertine gamer [0] on Mastodon:
	[0] ze libertine gamer

	<zlg> Places like Bongusta and phlogroll remind me of web-rings
	from the 1990s. Let's name'em gopher-rings, or perhaps gopher dens
	if we want to be cute. They serve the same function: building
	a network with volunteer participants (the curation process) and
	technology that empowers the individual (self-hosting and
	moku-pona). What do you think, #gopher?

	tfurrows [1] also posted a semi-related phlog [2] today on
	favorites and the tools that engineer our interactions.
	[1] tfurrows - sdf
	[2] tfurrows - favorites

	- - - - - - - -

	I started thinking about a response on Mastodon, but my head
	flooded with too many things to fit in 500 characters. A phlog is
	a better medium, I think.

	In the nascent web we had many ways of finding each other and
	other content that seems archaic or obtuse in retrospect. In the
	very earliest days I kept a paper notebook where I manually wrote
	down email addresses and websites. Later web-rings became popular
	ways to link like-content to one another, forming communities from
	the ether. By the time search engines came online we had all sorts
	of other ways to bridge the gaps.

	I think back to my time using AltaVista, or Lycos, or Yahoo!,
	finding them awkward and lacking, and returning to the advice of
	a webring or forum to find real relevant sites. I would cast
	a broader net using a meta-search engine like SavvySearch and
	click through pages and pages of results. That method of exploring
	the web didn't take over in prominance for me, personally, until
	Google began their takeover.

	Web-rings fell to the wayside quickly as "googling" entered the
	lexicon, and I don't think I consciously realized the
	"engineering" or "channeled usage", as tfurrows puts it, was so
	broadly affecting my behavior until very recently. In my head,
	search engines are tools and I use them. If I am careful to avoid
	tracking behaviors, they don't use me, right?

	Well, maybe not. Google's algorithms, or a browser's "favorites"
	screen guides our hand and our habits in a major way. We engage
	with what we see and what we find, and that is a power that
	shouldn't be forgotten.

	So, thinking on ze libertine gamer's idea, I think the gopher
	aggregators, the gopher-rings, are very much a throwback to the
	old days when communities were more manually linked to one
	another. There is still a power inherent in the tools we use, no
	different than Google wields, or Firefox, but because it's curated
	by participants in the community (like me!), I feel better about
	it. Our micro-aggregators aren't monolithic. Anyone can run one,
	thanks to the awesome utilities shared around the community.

	My phlog roll [3] began as a personal tool for me to track the
	phlogs I read. It's become a very popular starting point for
	others as well, and so I added some language to the top on how to
	get new sites added. Inclusion on my aggregator is open to all, as
	long as your phlog is in a format that moku-pona can handle.
	I don't want to be a barrier to finding gopher content; I want to
	be an easy entry-point.

	[3] gopher.black phlog roll

	Have a site that you want added? Drop me an email at one of the
	addresses in my contact page on this gopher hole, or reach out on
	Mastodon. I try to watch SDF, grex, and the tilde communities for
	new holes that pop up so I can add them quickly. I generally wait
	until a phlog has at least two posts before I add it to avoid the
	"hello world" phenomenon that litters SDF. Just hit me up if you
	see something missing.