20230807-alternate_protocols.txt
I was watching a Distrotube video[0] today about Gemini. I have long
been a hesitant adopter of new tech, be they software, games,
hardware, etc. I sadly find with increasing regularity that new
technology is buggy or half-baked, the wonders of a
profits-over-people capitalist society that stresses deadlines and
advertising attractiveness over functionality.

Anyway, I downloaded bombadillo[1] and was not too impressed. No
offense intended to the developer, but I'm just used to Lynx and
entering into the vim command mode just to follow a link is tedious.
":1<enter>" is slower than "1<enter>". It just is. I don't think it's
horrible, but the real downer was trying to find a Gemini space.
Bombadillo is a combo Gopher/Gemini browser, but whenever I tried to
visit a gemini:// URL, it spit out an error. Not good. The video I
referenced is 2 whole years old. The DT URL is defunct. It doesn't
work. It's dead. One thing I simultaneously understand but can't stand
is quick adoption and just as quick abandonment, especially with
front-facing things like internet sites. Ubuntu isn't for you? Fine,
install a different OS. Gopher/Gemini isn't for you? You don't have to
update them, but don't be an asshole and delete advertised spaces.

I mean I can understand if a website from 1996 isn't around in 2010. I
get it, especially if it's on its own domain, but cases like DT are
just annoying because the fucktard still has a web presence. I guess
the massive bandwidth demands of hosting either Gopher or Gemini was
too much /sarcasm. The asshole has FOUR, count them, FOUR videos with
Gemini in the title[2]! And he couldn't be bothered to keep his Gemini
site up for TWO years.

On a tangent, I was perusing the SDF users directory[3] and came
across a "new" protocol idea called Innova[4]. I'm not sure whether
this is another troll job or just an ill-informed venture that never
took off. My initial guess is the latter, but I wouldn't be surprised
if it's the former. It's basically just an offline internet, with no
updates besides the first time you log in? The idea falls apart
immediately once you start thinking about it. I'm guessing this was
some kid trying to make something that was just a non-starter. No
hate, I'm all for new ideas and improvements, but at the same time, I
think the Internet has enough protocols.

This brings me back to Gemini. I've said it before: Gemini is a
compromise ironically adding needless complexity to an already-crowded
Internet that half-asses both Gopher and the WWW. I want to like it,
but it's just like browsing the Gopherspace with a few add-ons, except
there's no interoperability. You MUST get a Gemini browser for it. I
guess it's kind of the same chicken/egg scenario that doomed Windows
Phone. I don't see any improvements on Gopher besides requisite TLS
(in which case, can't a VPN secure your data?) and some minimal MIME
integration.

Regardless of the protocol itself, it also has very little to offer
that isn't on Gopher or the WWW. I know it's not supposed to be a
replacement, but its very invention was due to shortcomings in both
the WWW and Gopher. And the servers are few and far between. I haven't
found a single one and Bombadillo uses Veronica-2 for search, so
there's little in the way of discovery on Gemini, too. Maybe there's a
Veronica for Gemini, but I have yet to find it. There are seemingly
more Gemini clients than servers. Just why? Do we need 30 separate
clients? Do we need GUIs for a Gopher+TLS protocol? I mean Gemini is
mostly text, too. Are inline images worth the fragmentation?

Probably the funniest/most confusing part of this is Bombadillo saying
"bombadillo is a gopher client for the terminal."[5] on the default
homepage. No mention of Gemini at all. Maybe that's why I can't find
Gemini content: I've only been using a Gopher client this whole time.

"Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing."
-Ron Swanson

0. https://yewtu.be/aklF1v8v2Mk
1. https://bombadillo.colorfield.space/
2. gopher://codemadness.org/7/idiotbox.cgi?distrotube+gemini
3. gopher://sdf.org/1/users/
4. gopher://sdf.org/0/users/emperor7/InnovaGopher.txt
5. gopher://colorfield.space:70/1/bombadillo-info