💾 Archived View for sdf.org › icemanfr › 2023 › 17.gmi captured on 2024-06-16 at 12:46:18. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-12-28)
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That's about two months that I've been posting in Gemini protocol, in parallel of HTML/HTTP. It was not in the original plan when I decided to do another blog in English. But I had it in mind for a year, when I was still using my Jekyll blog. I remember that I was laughing at Gemini when I first heard about it. Using a different browser for this is something against my idea of an open web. But for two years I had been trying to simplify the way I «produce» posts on a blog. Gemini made it easier than anything else because I'm writing in markdown and there's not much to change to make a Gemtext.
In my new static blog, no more Jekyll or Hugo or any other static site generator. I'm not far from Gemini and I will explain this in detail in 2024. My articles and posts are written in .md. I just need to copy and modify the head and the bottom of the document in .gmi. Another change to the index in .gmi and that's it. Now that I have found a server to put the blog in gemini, it's as simple as a sftp command line or whatever you use (rsync...). Easier than that ? If Gemini files were in .md and real markdown, perhaps?
What made me try Gemini ? Curiosity of course and after I read a lot of blogs in that format. The older I get, the more I like text and the less I put pictures. I do take pictures with my camera but that's just for fun, a hobby and very few pictures are in my «portfolio». I have discovered a lot of blogs (some are in my blogroll) about different topics, so different from the usual blogs I read. I don't like blogs that are made to «become famous». That's absolutely not the idea in the Gemini world and that's why many (and I at first) didn't understand why it's more «closed» than the world wide web. I once compared it to the small Gallic village of Asterix against the Romans. But it's not war, it's a peaceful coexistence. The proof is that we can have a gemini blog and a http/html blog in the same time, posting the same things or not.
The difference is that it's harder to write a tutorial in Gemini, for example because pictures are not automatically opened. Some subjects are not easy to make and write but some others are easier to read. For example, I read a lot of poetry in Gemini, ...and that's not common in «normal» blogs. That's just because Gemini is a «text first» protocol, the complete opposite of how the web has been developing for years into a kind of new «TV» or entertainment medium. I can compare it to the contrast between books and films to tell a story. They can't do the same thing but they're both interesting. Perhaps it's because I'm not a good «director» of film myself that I prefer this text format.
It wasn't in the plan to have a Gemini blog but I'll keep it. I will also keep the Gopher page that introduce the posts in Gemini format. I'm not convinced that Gopher has a strong future but I think it's useful to keep a trace or a testimony of Gopher like everything that has made the history of the Internet. I don't know what the future of Gemini will be. I'm not very optimistic by nature and I see a lot of Gemini blogs that have been closed for months. When you thing about it, there are a lot of «normal» blogs that have been closed for years and it's very difficult to keep a blog «online» and «alive». I have been doing it for more than 15 years now with so many versions (Dotclear, Spip, PluXML, Wordpress...). It won't be the new protocol to rebuild the internet. So what ? I think everyone who's tried this, has had fun and that's fine for me.
I just read a series of posts (1) and answers about how we should save our Gemini capsules. I have to admit that many gemlogs and capsules listed in aggregators or sites are now offline. It's like waves. Some were online for a year or two in 2020-2021, and now there's a new wave of new sites (like mine) with many gemlogs created for a try. Real living gemlogs are very few. Saving gemlogs, why not, like a wayback machine for Gemini. But where ? On archive.org, maybe ? But the other point is on websites in general and blogs. I made at least 8 versions of my French blog, from Spip to Dotclear, Wordpress, Jekyll...and changing URL each time. But I haven't lost anything important for me. I now have a mirror and one of the mirror is going to survive without me, I think. If it's only a hobby, something for fun, it's also a small part of web-history, human history, aninfinitely small part, so small that you can forget it...or not.
or by a reply on your blog