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Sean Conner sean at conman.org
Sun Feb 21 06:49:48 GMT 2021
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It was thus said that the Great Michael Lazar once stated:
I feel like I should say something as the author of the controversial
gemini favicon RFC [0].
I've been pondering a response to this all day, and I wasn't sure even ifI should respond. Thanks for breaking the ground here.
This comment was posted earlier today by ddevault on the Amfora issue
tracker [1].
Every gemini page shall complete in a single gemini request. Please
do not send extra requests to my server, opt-in or not. Gemini is
not the web and adding flashy features and new standards is
decidedly un-gemini.
I might update my server software to automatically blackhole any IP
address which tries to request a favicon file.
And continuing in the following comment (after makeworld expressed
some reservations).
This is the only means we have of self regulation. I'll ask nicely
first but ultimately I'll do what I have to in order to preserve
Gemini's simplicity and utility as a small internet protocol.
Do not. Extend. Gemini.
Period.
This is disgraceful, shameless intimidation.
But it fits with his character. When I asked for the IP address of hisweb proxy to block it (because of his refusal to support robots.txt), he resorted to name calling: https://lists.orbitalfox.eu/archives/gemini/2020/003509.html
(Note for non-US readers: The term "dick" is a slang term for "penis" andis used as a slur against other males. It is *also* true that "Dick" is alegitimate name (a short form for "Richard"), but as I'm not named"Richard", nor is Drew, it was obviously a slur against me.)
It does come across as Drew saying "blocking is for me, not for thee.")
Note the deliberate timing of when this issue was raised.
gemini://srht.site was announced just a few hours earlier and the
obvious expectation is that ddevault will soon host a significant
portion of gemini capsules in the wild. He now has the power he
needs to make demands of other gemini developers.
The threat isn’t to blackhole all requests to /favicon.txt, which
might have been considered reasonable. No, the thread is to blackhole
the IP address of every amfora user, cutting them off from a large
swath of gemini and thereby crippling the client. Destroying the
hundreds of hours that makeworld has no doubt spent building up his
software and community. Unless he submits, unwavering, to ddevault’s
ultimatum to "fix" his software.
And it worked.
Think carefully about the consequences of using gemini://srht.site.
Now, switching gears to rant about gemini more broadly. For context,
I was one of the earliest adopters of gemini, although I don’t have
any ties to its inception and the group of people who brainstormed
ideas for the initial spec. I was a spectator who stumbled upon it
while I was browsing through bongusta! one day [2].
I am not fond of Drew (and it's for more than his just calling me a badname), but I'm trying square his actions against mine from 2019. Forcontext, I was *the* first adopter of Gemini, writing my own server evenbefore Solderpunk could write one (for the record: he wrote the secondGemini server). I *broke* the spec with my implementation, not at allagreeing with Solderpunk about some pretty fundamental issues with theprotocol, because at *that* time, the protocol:
used single digit resonse codes no support for client certificates a link line of [text|url] no virtual hosting a request format ala gopher (including TABs!) no rediection no indication of pages are actually gone vs not found no MIME parameters
I like to think I wasn't quite the dictator that Drew comes across as (inboth his Amfora ticket, or this message to the list:
https://lists.orbitalfox.eu/archives/gemini/2020/003506.html
Who put *him* in charge of Gemini?) I had (well, still have) strongopinions on Gemini, but I did present my arguments for certain features, andagainst others. And it wasn't uncommon in the early days of sweepingchanges and mass updates to clients *and* servers.
As a consequence, I find this seeming charge of "don't change the specEVER!" troublesome. That once Solderpunk (where *IS* he, by the way?) makesthe few changes that are requested, that's it. It's done. No moreexperimentation. Ever. It feels as if Gemini is ossifying even before it'sset in stone. It's a weird feeling.
It’s the magic of the smolnet. It’s fleeting; you can’t capture it in
a bottle and you can’t freeze it in time by locking down the spec.
Enjoy it while it lasts. I came up with the favicon emoji RFC because
I thought it was a fun idea. I ported botany to gemini because I
thought it was a fun idea. Don’t stifle your own ideas out of fear of
what will happen to gemini://. Gemini will evolve whether you want it to
or not.
I thought the favicon emoji was a fun idea. I still do. I even supportit on my server. Astrobotany is a *wonderful* use of client certificates(and something I was hoping would happen when I was pushing for their use). And I agree, Gemini will evolve over time. Inline images? Okay, data: URLs[3]! Or wait, I know! A MIME type of multiple/related!
-spc (Muahahahahahahahahahaha!)
[0] gemini://mozz.us/files/rfc_gemini_favicon.gmi
[1] https://github.com/makeworld-the-better-one/amfora/issues/199
[2] gopher://i-logout.cz:70/1/bongusta
[3] I'm the joker responsible for that. Gemini Client Torture Test #21.