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Technology/Gopher, (sdf.org), 11/06/2018
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I enjoy having multiple gopher holes. Why have just one? It
provides a bit of segmentation in what I write about, and I
like that. If anyone doesn't like it, I'm sorry. I haven't
gotten any feedback on it, so I have to believe no one cares
too much.
Another great thing about multiple gopher holes is the
opportunity to support multiple public access systems. These
servers probably won't last forever if no one is using them.
The admins won't bother (silenceisdefeat, for example.)
There are down sides of course... like, what do you do when
one of your gopher providers seems to be going belly-up? And
what if it's a main gopher hole for you, with plenty of your
content on it?
Grex, I'm looking at you.
I started using grex around the same time I started using
SDF, a couple years ago I think it was (2 or 3 or
thereabouts, I'd have to look.) It was then, and is now, a
struggling public access unix system. I've seen a couple new
users sign up since I got there, but not a lot. I've seen a
bit of activity in the bbs and chat, but again, not a lot.
For whatever reason, people just aren't using what's there.
One of the best things-in my opinion- that grex did recently
was to add gopher hosting. I don't have access to the logs,
but my guess is that the gopher side of things gets more
action than the html side of things, the bbs side of things,
and the chat side of things combined. It's a hunch.
For a while, everything was wonderful. But then, the great
slowdown of 2018 struck. And stuck. It seems like Grex can't
process gopher requests in anything akin to a timely manner
lately; all of my clients timeout. Sometimes it only affects
the main gopher page, other times it affects the whole
server. Logging in can be impossible or barely possible.
Using the system if you do login is sluggish.
I have written the admin a tiny bit, but thinking on it, I
could try a little harder on that side of things. Cross has
been quite nice and very responsive. I should probably reach
out.
Regardless of my civic duty, the question is in my mind:
what if grex dies? It's a possibility, certainly. I do have
a backup, but I'm not looking forward to re-homing the
content. And, do I wait, or do I make a move before I have
to? The deep, meaningful questions in life...
This reminds me of something that has been discussed
elsewhere: the ephemeral nature of things, especially
esoteric old technological things. The point is to enjoy
them while they last, not to worry about when they'll be
gone. Grex is here today; I can login, use party, check the
bbs, and maybe write a thing or two there. That's good
enough for me- I'm not going to think about it any more
until it stops responding indefinitely.
***
I'm also happy to report that I logged into the CDC6500
today. Now there is a system that I'm simply pleased to use
whenever it is powered up, without any real concern for how
long it lasts. It's here today, and that's good enough.