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See my previous Useful Links For The Small Internet post for great stuff that’s already on the small internet. But we could have so much more.
It’s a cliche but I really do spend a lot of time there. Most of that time is reading, not answering or voting or flagging et cetera. A read-only StackExchange on Gemini would be really nice. Not that StackExchange on the web is particularly bloated, but it would be a great resource to have on Gemini.
Documentation for multiple versions of various open source software, all in one place. Again, Read The Docs is not an example of the bloated web, yet I would love to have it here.
Maybe this is something that you could do yourself. The code is open, the docs are open: write some templating code to output text/gemini instead of text/html ... that could be something to put on the to-do list.
I don’t read RFCs very often but I’d love to see a Gemini version. Maybe this is a DIY project, maybe not. In any case Gemini is a perfect fit for the format of prose mixed with code and ASCII figures (and a hyperlink here and there).
(WWW) IETF Request For Comment memo index
The “elevator pitch” for Github or Bitbucket is deceptively simple: a web app that hosts source code. Then Github has to have their “value added features” like Github Pages, Wikis, issue tracking, &c. There aren’t intrusive ads or anything but I definitely consider Github more bloated than it needs to be. There’s a fair bit of JavaScript running things and they refused to cooperate with old browsers. That’s rather galling to me.
The vast majority of the time I simply need a browsable directory of the source code. This is something Gemini handles with aplomb. Hell, Gopher handled that well. When I’m at my computer it’s usually quicker to use the git command line tools to check out the entire repository, open the particular file I care about, and delete the repository than it is to launch Chrome or Firefox and browse github.com.
Keep your bloated web app, Github. Keep value added features, sure. Go ahead and keep your status as the de-facto home of all source code. Just give me a directory listing over Gemini and I will be happy.
It’s kinda frivolous but I appreciate the pop culture wikis. Recently I wanted to find some background characters in X-Files episodes. The X-Files Fandom wiki had it covered. Yet it was also covered with ads. They’re awful. A basic Gemini version would be a breath of fresh air.
You might be able to do this one yourself, but probably not. I looked into it a bit. The content is Creative Commons-licensed, so legally you’re in the clear. But unlike Wikipedia they don’t regularly export the wiki database. Only administrators can do so. That’s incredibly frustrating to see CC content (nominally “open”) effectively closed behind business practices.
(Bloated WWW) X-Files wiki at Fandom
This is pretty damn niche, and weirdly it almost doesn’t even belong on this list. Dan Luu is an engineer who writes long-form posts on nerdy but (usually) accessible topics. I loved his post about web bloat: he took a road trip through rural America and noted how poorly the web fares on those connections. He included data backing up the (obvious but subjective) conclusion that the web is too slow.
His site is deliberately unstylish and quite minimalistic. It’s the opposite of bloated. As a matter of fact it’s so close to being plain text that it begs to be a Gemini site. A side benefit of a Gemini version would be improved rendering on small viewports. Mobile web browsers give his pages lines that are too long: the text is tiny to compensate.
(WWW) Web Bloat on the blog of Dan Luu
There are plenty more sites that ought to be on Gemini. I expect to have plenty of sequels to this post. Maybe I will even convert a site.
23 August 2020 by Sardonyx
Updated 24 August 2020
File under: small internet
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