💾 Archived View for rawtext.club › ~winter › gemlog › 2023 › 8-08.gmi captured on 2023-11-14 at 08:00:40. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-09-08)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I came to Gemini later than a lot of people, emailing RTC's admin to request an account last November. It was part of my first (of many) attempts to leave Twitter, my social media drug of choice. I'd known about Gemini for a while; left_adjoint told me about the slow web, and Gemini, and the recent resurgence of pubnixes. I didn't act immediately but I'm grateful for the conversation. It was one of those things that stuck with me, so that when I was thinking about how everything was sort of going to shit, I thought, okay, why not try something _really_ different?
I use amfora almost daily, using it to quickly check my gemlog entries and occasionally for some light browsing when I want to feel the old burn of a curses-based interface. So when I saw makew0rld's post and realized that they were the author of amfora (among other things!), I was a little sad. Because here was someone who threw themselves at Gemini during the most isolating parts the COVID years, and now, well, they're done.
In practice, the Web already has all the Gemini content I’m interested in from various people, and then of course everything else.
With respect: if that's the case for you, it certainly isn't for me. I don't want to read mirrored Gemini sites in Chrome. I'd rather use Lagrange, which has become an indispensible piece of software for me.
And a lot of the more interesting writing I've read in the past year has been here, and nowhere else. You can argue that a lot of what's written in Geminispace is tech-focused, and I won't fight you. But there's a lot of beautiful, weird stuff too, and I live for that. If you write about what you love and your mess of a life I'll read you forever, because when I was young I used to do the same thing.
Gemini also has downsides. I enjoy being able to express a bit of personality on my website through CSS, which is just not possible with Gemini. And I’m come to realize I really do appreciate the unique design of different people’s websites as well.
Again, this isn't something I miss. If I want to express myself through the design of my site, well, that's what the web is for. I have websites for myself, my project, and another on NeoCities as well. One of the things I love about Geminispace is I don't have to care about that here. The feel is part BBS, part early website, all presented on a black-and-white CRT. It's ugly. It's functional. It's beautiful.
So long, makew0rld, and thanks for all the fish. I'll keep using amfora; it's a great piece of software. And I'll keep up here, as long as I can. Geminispace has been a startlingly wonderful discovery and a place that's felt more like home for me than anywhere else in years.