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Quick guide through Gemini

What is Gemini

Gemini is a new text-based protocol lighter than the web that takes privacy and security very seriously. I won't describe everything about gemini here so I invite you to checkout the official page:

Project Gemini

Why I like Gemini

Here is a quick breakdown of the reasons I like Gemini so much

Super easy to maintain. You don't have to deal about all the design because it's just text.
Super lightweight. You can run it and use it using pretty much any hardware even very very very old hardware.
Content-first. It's mainly based on the content and is distraction-free
Privacy and security respecting. Gemini has a very ingenious system of authentication using SSL client certs and keys. It doesn't require password and no sensible data is stored on the servers. You can also use this "identity" at several places.
Accessibility. Because it's content-first it means it's also pretty friendly for people with screen readers for instance. It's also very accessible to any kind of screen and devices
A lot of cool stuff as you'll see below
Really fun world and terminology

There are other perks about gemini that are more related to the concept of diary:

I can have my own space on the internet where I can post anything.
It makes me able to centralize all files, info, posts in one place which I fully control.
The fact gemini markup is basically like markdown I could easily move all my stuff to a classic blog (but believe me, I really don't want to)
Keeping trace of everything
A really good way to deal with emotions
It calms me down
It makes me practice writing
It makes me able to reflect on myself and express what I am thinking more and more clearly
It makes me reflect on every day, especially by finding a title, where I have to find a topic for my day.
It really really limits my usage of social medias and YouTube

Quick note about terminology

A capsule is a Gemini server. It's *your* space.
A gemlog is a kind of blog for gemini where you can write about anything. It doesn't have to be with any specific topic. You are free!
The flight log (or tinylog) is a kind of microblogging. It's one page where you can write all your thoughts, it's meant for messages that are too short to be part of the gemlog.

Using Gemini

Gemini softwares (like servers, proxies, clients, etc)

Lagrange, a beautiful GUI client

Amfora, a very nice terminal client

titan2, a simple gemini server to make your own capsule

My guide to make your own capsule using titan2

Or you can also get free Gemini hosting on those servers:

tilde.team (but also many others on the tildeverse)

flounder.online

rawtext.club

How to discover capsules

To discover capsules there are several ways:

Using LEO (Low Earth Orbit or the lion) is a webring. You can discover random capsules that are also part of it
Using bookmarks. Some capsules share their bookmarks (the other capsules they visit) you can check them out to discover new cool stuff
Using catalogs. There are some capsules that are meant for listing other capsules to help you discover new capsules by categories.
Using search engine. I think there are some but I personally don't know any and don't use them.
By asking in chatrooms. Come on #gemini on irc.tilde.chat or on irc.libera.chat and chat.

What to make on Gemini

There is a ton of things to discover and make on gemini. Here are some examples

"tinylog" for micro-blogging (like a list of your thoughts)
Bookmarks
Playlist
Lists of info about X
Scripts (if you are a developper)
Recipes
Tutorials
Videos, images, etc. You can use gemini as your drive, for private files you just have to encrypt them.
Archive of stuff you find online
Cgi scripts (things that make your capsule interactive)

* SmolFM for music stream

SmolFM

How to organize content

This is only my way of organizing my capsule and it's still evolving.

.
├── index.gmi
├── fight.gmi
├── links.gmi
├── playlist.gmi
├── gemini.gmi
├── reload.sh
├── minecraft
│   ├── portal.gmi
│   └── starter-base.gmi
├── recipes
│   └── brownie.gmi
└── tech
    ├── dwm.gmi
    └── firefox.gmi

All posts (things that are static) are in directories according to their category.
All pages (things that aren't static) are in the root (which includes tinylog, lists, etc)
The root index.gmi contains ascii art, presentation and links to all the pages of the capsule
The reload script sends everything to the server