A plan for growing the ecosystem

On Thu, 18 Jun 2020 12:36:25 -0600
case <me at case.codes> wrote:

> 1. Work with static site generators to get Gemini support built. At
> the least as supported plugins, then as part of the default
> distribution. md2gemini is key here

My understanding is that you only really need text/gemini for index
pages; all other text content can be text/plain, text/markdown, etc.
How this text gets varies by client, but the only thing stopping
somebody using a static site generator from also publishing on Gemini
is the need to generate text/gemini index pages.

However, I remember enough about how Jekyll works to know that it
should be possible to create a Liquid template that outputs a gemini
index, since Liquid templates have also been used in Jekyll to generate
RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds. You can probably do the same in Hugo and
Pelican using their templates; no need for plugins.

Hell, you could probably generate a text/gemini index with M4 and a
makefile if you wanted.

> 2. Get feed readers to support gemini, starting with open source ones.

IIRC, feed readers support render HTML by using libraries like
webkitgtk3. Supporting Gemini text would require the implementation of a
similar rendering library.

> And this is the hardest but is aided by the previous two:
> 3. Get CMS/blog hosts to support gemini; I'm thinking smaller players
> first but building up to WordPress, medium, etc...

We could probably go directly for WordPress support by implementing
text/gemini publishing as a plugin. 

However, I suggest that we immediately write off Medium as a lost
cause. I don't think there's any way Ev Williams and co. would be
amenable to letting content leak out of their proprietary walled garden
via an alternate protocol like Gemini.

-- 
Matthew Graybosch		gemini://starbreaker.org
#include <disclaimer.h>		gemini://demifiend.org
https://matthewgraybosch.com	gemini://tanelorn.city
"Out of order?! Even in the future nothing works."

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