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[tech] [spec] On extending gemini

Michael Lazar lazar.michael22 at gmail.com

Sun Feb 21 05:23:15 GMT 2021

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I feel like I should say something as the author of the controversialgemini favicon RFC [0].

This comment was posted earlier today by ddevault on the Amfora issuetracker [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 expressedsome 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.

Note the deliberate timing of when this issue was raised.gemini://srht.site was announced just a few hours earlier and theobvious expectation is that ddevault will soon host a significantportion of gemini capsules in the wild. He now has the power heneeds to make demands of other gemini developers.

The threat isn’t to blackhole all requests to /favicon.txt, whichmight have been considered reasonable. No, the thread is to blackholethe IP address of every amfora user, cutting them off from a largeswath of gemini and thereby crippling the client. Destroying thehundreds of hours that makeworld has no doubt spent building up hissoftware and community. Unless he submits, unwavering, to ddevault’sultimatum 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 haveany ties to its inception and the group of people who brainstormedideas for the initial spec. I was a spectator who stumbled upon itwhile I was browsing through bongusta! one day [2].

Solderpunk and the FAQ [3] are wrong about gemini. Gemini’s successis not because the protocol was designed to be restrictive, or secure,or accessible, or any other post-hoc rationalization that one mightcome up with to explain why gemini is better than the web.

Gemini is nothing more than a set of common-sense solutions toproblems that were expressed by the gopher community around the time.By “gopher community” I don’t mean the UMN gopher/gopher+ of the 90’swhich is long since dead. I mean the modern gopher revival of thepost 2000’s, which is *completely* different in both form andfunction. Gopher has not survived the past 30 years because theprotocol was simple and restrictive. On the contrary, gopher hasevolved profoundly.

So then what’s so special about gemini? Why not stick to gopher? Putsimply, it was time for gopher to evolve again. The gopher communitywanted more. But we had reached the limit of what was capable withoutbreaking gopher in backwards incompatible ways. Thus gemini wasconceived to fill that gap. This is such an important distinction tomake. Gemini was *not* born to add restrictions to an increasinglybloated web. Gemini was born to release the shackles of a legacygopher protocol.

The secret to gemini is not what it restricts; but what it enables.Constraint breeds creativity. This is the reason that gopher andgemini have been successful. A bunch of tinkerers, hackers, artists,poets, and makers found a new medium to express themselves. Orrather, a bunch of normal folks like you and me discovered that we*can* be those things if we want to be.

It’s the magic of the smolnet. It’s fleeting; you can’t capture it ina 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 becauseI thought it was a fun idea. I ported botany to gemini because Ithought it was a fun idea. Don’t stifle your own ideas out of fear ofwhat will happen to gemini://. Gemini will evolve whether you want it toor not.

- Michael (mozz)

[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] https://portal.mozz.us/gemini/gemini.circumlunar.space/docs/faq.gmi