💾 Archived View for gemlog.blue › users › cy_gu › 1638489163.gmi captured on 2022-04-28 at 19:29:14. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

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⬅️ Previous capture (2021-12-04)

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Gemlog #10

gemini://republic.circumlunar.space/

As I have been exploring the Gemini community, there are so many Gemini servers that offer users to post and share thoughts and information, and I am using the server called Gemini.Blue to post my discoveries in the community. However, this server known as Mare Serenitatis Circulunar Corporate Republic (abbreviated as the Republic server below) draws my attention because different from other Gemini servers that only claim to provide a free platform for Gemini members and instruct them on how to use the servers, the Republic server directly declares to challenge the traditional commercial Internet space on its main page. The server says that it is an “asylum to those fleeing the commercialisation, bloat and surveillance of the modern web.” I really appreciate the server’s statement that challenges commercialization of the contemporary Internet and the word “surveillance” really stands out to me since it works as a foundation for marketing and political control on the Internet. As I have mentioned before, in the contemporary online world, the most typical surveillance is cookies installed in many websites written in HTML. The Gemini protocol prevents such a possibility to install surveillance devices on its websites to track users. Also, the autonomous nature of the server and the whole Gemini community undermines the logic of commercialization on the Internet. It is really an asylum where people can escape from online advertising and marketing. However, since it is an asylum, which is supposed to be taken as a tightly interconnected community, I think that its interface based on the Gemini protocol fails to help establish connections between users as people cannot comment under others’ posts but only read their posts. The interaction in the server and the whole Gemini ecology is inadequate, and I expect in the future the Gemini community will be more mutually responsive and reciprocal.