💾 Archived View for jsreed5.org › log › 2021 › 202109 › 20210928-ad-hoc-conventions.gmi captured on 2021-12-04 at 18:04:22. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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Much of the discussion on the OrbitalFox Gemini mailing list has focused on conventions, formatting, standards and best practices. The goal is not to alter the core protocol specification but to help design capsules in ways that allow for server and client software to enhance the Geminispace experience.
While I enjoy reading the conversations, I often completely ignore their advice. I create many different kinds of content on my capsule, and most of them have some common formatting elements (such as a "last updated" tag at the bottom), but they are only constructed that way on my capsule. I don't model my conventions after any other capsule--the thought doesn't even cross my mind. I come up with a system, often on the fly, and if I don't like it, I make up something else.
I know why some people might find this behavior annoying or even harmful, but it's one of the things about the culture of Geminispace that I really like. The protocol is simple enough, and community is small and decentralized enough, that any operator is free to adopt his or her own formatting conventions, and the capsule will still work. A natural market of ideas develops, in which people can reproduce conventions they like or create their own.
This is completely unlike the modern Web, where so much site design and even site traffic is dominated by automated systems. Fickle consumer trends demand that sites be revamped every now and then, and businesses, always vying for the viewer's precious time, try to build the flashiest and most user-friendly pages as a result. Most standards and best practices of site design are extremely rigid at any given time--only to change completely in five to ten years.
If you are or hope to be a capsule operator, I recommend building and formatting your pages the way you want to, without concern about how others do it. It's a perfect embodiment of the autonomous spirit Gemini has instilled in so many people.
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[Last updated: 2021-10-28]