💾 Archived View for gem.sdf.org › iiogama › posts › why_gemini.gmi captured on 2024-03-21 at 15:48:31. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2022-07-16)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I've recently decided to focus on this gemsite as my primary online presence, over the plethora of options we have available. This decision does not mean that I will never work on my website, or dig my gopherhole, or even make another post on a social network though. This decision does mean that this gemsite, hosted on whatever domain moving forward, can be considered the most up-to-date source of information about me, as well as things that I want to share. I'd like to explain why, which seems customary for all gemsites.
I am making the assumption that you, the reader of this gemsite, knows a bit about the gemini protocol technical standards, as well as it coming about as a reaction to the current state of the web. I'll link to some information at the bottom, in case you need some (which if that is the case, congratulations on finding yourself using a gemini client to navigate to my gemini site, without any prior knowledge).
Markdown is a joy to use as a markup language and gemtext strengthens that joy with its simplicity. Writing is an important part in the learning process, as it assists us with processing information and structuring our thoughts. There is nothing stopping me from using a different tool and format to write, but I feel more motivated to write when there are less hurdles to a pleasant looking document. I jump between many devices, operating systems, and programs throughout the day, and practically everything has markdown recognition by default. And even if the writing input doesn't have markdown recognition, markdown gets the markup idea across in plaintext just fine, which is kind of the point.
I've read some arguments that people find the stripped down nature of gemtext excessive and they wish that there are more formatting options, but the limited options allow for quicker access to writing content. The majority of blog posts and articles that I read only use the same formatting that gemtext offers, i.e. headings, bold/italicized text, and lists. I feel that if more markup options are required for the article, then the author should use a more robust format which can still be easily served by a gemini server.
I have a website and you can fully expect it to be used as a place to learn web development and design, albeit at a very small scale. But I don't want to use it as my main page for the following reasons:
I like learning new tools and I enjoy taking a critically, constructive look at my workflow, but right now, I want a publishing format that can fit into the tools that I regularly use and enjoy using.
Additionally, I want to add my voice to the public protests against what the web has become. Of course, I can create a simple, clean version of a website that checks a lot of the same boxes as gemini. But you, the internet browser, have no guarantee on what you're loading before you navigate to my website. I can embed a plethora of images and auto-playing videos that eat up your limited bandwidth. I can write broken javascript code that run without your permission. I can load code from third-parties that pass on data about you to malicious entities. All of these practices are unfair to the user and I want to reduce my involvement with it
Gopher's text-centric formatting is similar to gemini, so one can assume it would fit the need that I'm wanting out of an online publication format, but I don't have a lot of history with it and I find the syntax of gophermaps confusing. I don't enjoy writing for gopher and with gemini, there is such a low learning curve that I am able to quickly get my thoughts down in text and published out to the world and it looks nice in the end. I want a combination of form and function that I don't get from gopher. I would like to learn more about gopher over time and plan to work on my gopherhole, but in the same way that I'll work on my website. The two will grow into non-sensical spaces for me to play around in.