---------------------------------------- | |
re: gopher resiliency | |
November 15th, 2019 | |
---------------------------------------- | |
The illustrious tfurrows recently wrote [0] on the topic of | |
resiliency of his gopher content. He brings up a familiar topic | |
and one tangentially related to the recently popular "right to be | |
forgotten" vs "archival" debates. | |
[0] tfurrows - gopher resiliency | |
I think I have something to say on the subject, but I started this | |
reply before I thought everything out. Lets see what comes up as | |
I go… | |
When I was a boy I had a cabinet in by bedroom. At some point in | |
time, for Christmas, I got my very own TV that sat on top of it. | |
Inside, at a later Christmas, I was able to add my Nintendo | |
Entertainment System and a few games. A bit later the cabinet | |
would welcome the introduction of some new controllers and my | |
first issue of Nintendo Power Magazine. The magazines grew quickly | |
from one to 10 to 40 until they took up most of the cabinet space. | |
At some point or another my subscription ended, though I couldn't | |
say when or why exactly. I grew up, my interests changed. I was on | |
BBSes and Prodigy all day instead of trying futilely to beat | |
Battle Toads. The cabinet door closed one day an didn't open again | |
for a very long time. | |
When it did open, I was older and with wildly different interests. | |
The NES still had its charm, so it came out of the cabinet and | |
journeyed with me to college and beyond. The magazines, though, | |
stayed on the shelf. Another decade passed and it was time to | |
empty out the cabinet from my parents' home as they planned their | |
retirement move. I cracked open the doors and there they were. In | |
a moment of nostalgia, I flipped through some pages. The air | |
filled with a familiar smell that transported me back to a time | |
when these characters, interviews, reviews and comics were vibrant | |
and new. I was 9 years old again and filled with joy for a moment. | |
But I wasn't there to take a massive collection of magazines with | |
me. I was there to empty out the trash, to toss it and let it go. | |
I put those magazines in an empty box that once held printer | |
paper, scribbled a label and tossed in in the car. I wasn't going | |
to keep them, but I wasn't ready for them to disappear just yet | |
either. | |
The box sat under my desk in my house for another couple years | |
totally forgotten until a friend's son developed a magical | |
infatuation with Mario that can only come with youth. He dressed | |
as Mario, got every toy Mario imaginable, and even enjoyed playing | |
the old games on his dad's emulator. One day the little guy got | |
quite the surprise when a giant box showed up on his table. He | |
looked inside, pulled out a magazine and started flipping through. | |
His eyes lit up when he saw that it was filled with Mario and all | |
the other familiar characters he loved. | |
He couldn't care less about game strategy guides for a system he | |
didn't have, but he loved the comic stories and the artwork. We | |
gave him some scissors and chopped them up to make new artwork. | |
His mom is an elementary school art teacher, so resources were | |
readily available. He made some really great stuff from those | |
dusty pages. | |
This came to mind as I was thinking about resiliency and I wanted | |
to share even if I couldn't articulate it perfectly. I guess it's | |
about the meaning of art in a way. Some argue that an artist (or | |
writer) has an intention with their work and that is the value. | |
Their intended sharing of an idea or experience is the art. Others | |
say that the experience of the viewer or reader is what matters. | |
I think there's enough value for both to be true. | |
When I write a phlog post or share some experiment on gopher I get | |
satisfaction from sharing my thoughts or notes or otherwise | |
contributing to the little quiet space we have carved out. I also | |
get joy knowing that you all read it. Over the years I've seen | |
first-hand how the things I've shared have landed with some of you | |
in an unintended way. Maybe they've inspired a response, or | |
reminded you of a long forgotten hobby. Maybe a silly project | |
I started and gave up on had a clue to something you were | |
struggling with. But there's more than the immediate effect. | |
I've run across old gopher content from the 90s detailing | |
conferences, meet-ups, and stories that are otherwise unknown to | |
me. I can witness snapshots in time as someone tried to puzzle out | |
the future of the internet, not knowing what was about to blow up | |
around them. Their goals of communication have little to do with | |
the experience I now have in reading. Instead of learning about | |
possible futures I get a glimpse of human struggle against the | |
unknown, teamwork and camaraderie. I get to see the problems of | |
the day in a way that's hard from this vantage. I get to remember | |
my own early internet days and pick out pieces of history. And | |
that's just from some gopher history [1]. How much more exciting | |
is it when I find old code or diaries. | |
[1] gopher history archives | |
Resiliency conjures up this idea that our writing is somehow | |
either indelible or written in disappearing ink. Some people will | |
assuredly make the choice to nuke their archives and skip out on | |
gopher or the web or whatever. Some will have hardware failures or | |
platforms will go away. Others will surely continue to archive. | |
Cameron Kaiser will continue his efforts, or others will rise up | |
and do the same, and much of this will survive in someone's text | |
archives. Others will come and go from places like SDF, leaving | |
behind a few postings and files before forgetting their account | |
exists. tfurrows has four cosmic posts [2] and five more secret | |
gopher postings [3] that link up a really cool and interesting | |
science fiction story. If that story doesn't continue then it | |
still exists as part of the shared universe. It adds to the vibe | |
and contributes in itself. | |
[2] Xero Carbon Wells | |
[3] Wells' Carbon Clique | |
Perhaps one day in the distant future our silly thoughts and ideas | |
will be gathered together, chopped up, and turned into something | |
new and unexpected. Maybe we'll all sit in a virtual cabinet for | |
decades first. Maybe some of it will fade away or be lost, but | |
I think there's a good chance for resiliency. Our stuff is mostly | |
text, after all, and that doesn't take up much space. |