While I was at university, I had a
very quirky roommate. She's still one
of my best friends.

The day I moved in, she came into my
room as I was unpacking and said, "I'm
going to look through all your stuff
when you're not here. So you can go
through my room if you want." I was
gobsmacked. She was unrepentant. I
resigned myself to the inevitable.

In his most recent phlog entry,
Solderpunk contended that phlogs are
the great part of gopherspace and
questioned what was special about the
submerged 90%.[1]

So let's go back to my roommate. She
knew that eventually, if you have a
roommate, you snoop a little. Maybe
you're restrained about it. Maybe
you're not. She had no restraint
whatsoever, so she gave me advance
notice. But here's the thing. It was
liberating! I actually didn't care
what was in her room. I don't recall
ever rifling through her stuff, but I
didn't worry about going into her room
if I needed something. The rules were
established. As for her, I assume she
knew the contents of my sock drawer
better than I did.

Anyways, that's the great thing about
the submerged 90% of the gopher
iceberg (sorry for the horribly
inappropriate metaphor, but I couldn't
think of a gopher-based analogy,
probably because I know nothing about
gophers). You've opened up your rooms
to me. I get to look into your
interests in a different, less
scripted way.

In a phlog, you control how you
present yourself. You choose
particular topics. You're probably
reticent about some things. You get
into ruts too. You flatten your own
character. But your gopher hole is
different. It's a dump for the things
that interest you. That's why it's so
interesting. I could pick out a few
people's burrows and go through what's
great about them, but that would feel
oddly creepy. Kind of like if my
roommate had livestreamed her forays
through my sock drawer. So I won't.

But you should know that I'm going to
look through your gopherhole when
you're gone. So you can look through
my stuff too.

[1] gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space/0/%7esolderpunk/phlog/gopherspace-the-tip-is-the-best.txt