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Re: "How can Gemini attract consistent activity?"
I'm not sure why it is such a heavy lift though. Maybe I need to spend some more time than a casual "hey check this thing out."
I think the utility of Gemini isn't immediately apparent for two reasons:
1. It primarily presents itself as a technology rather than a tool.
2. Gemini is often stated as being related to privacy or simplicity, which unfortunately doesn't say much since the meaning of these terms have been overused and watered-down in software and technology.
This is why I think it'd be a good idea to identify all the ways in which Gemini can be said to tangibly offer value.
Nov 27 · 3 weeks ago
👻 darkghost · Nov 27 at 14:20:
Definitely helps having a Google AI with the same damn name to misdirect.
"Make it better by providing interesting content or improving it"
and that's the beauty of gemini
One environment where Geminispace has the upper hand over the Web is the terminal, in terms of user experience. And who uses the terminal the most? The software devs, devops and IT admins. So to me the IT crowd could be big users of the Geminispace. That's why I've developed a JSdoc server for Geminispace for example.
🎵 alice-sur-le-nuage · Nov 27 at 21:16:
When I first encountered the Internet, the web was just a small space amongst others. We had IRC where you might encounter by luck rumours of an FTP server, strange paths you had to navigate on said server to find troves of forbidden documents on all sorts of topics. It was special because it was obscure. I don't want an amazing AI powered search engine that discovers everything. I want mystery and magic, and gemini brings back a bit of that. Finding gemini itself is like finding the entrance to a secret temple in the jungle. Few people make it there, and there are adventures ahead. If you wanted to make gemini more accessible you'd need to change that hidden temple into an amusement park. But when you do that, you lose the magic, and that would sadden me. I'm not an elitist - anyone can find the hidden temple. But you have to want to.
👻 darkghost · Nov 28 at 00:06:
here's a killer application of Gemini: there is no algorithm deciding what it thinks he would like. Anything you access is your decision to seek out. Once you get there there are no dark patterns trying to keep you on a consumptive treadmill. If I really wanted to sell it I would argue that there is a freedom of thought that emerges from these aspects. While it is feasible that somebody could program an algorithm and these dark patterns that keep you on the consumptive treadmill, the tech hobbles it from being as effective.
That’s what the World Wide Web was before YOU became the product.
Even search engines in the days of Lycos and Webcrawler were closer to how Kennedy works.
👻 shikitohno · Nov 28 at 05:10:
I'm not convinced it makes sense to approach this from a non-ideological point of view. As I see it, Gemini is fundamentally ideological, created as it was in response to issues with the internet as it exists over other protocols, http in particular. You can't, in my opinion, avoid a certain level of ideology in expanding it without losing some of what makes it special.
I think the effort might be better spent in improving ease of use and user-experience for those who are already interested. Things like ease of discovering content you're interested in beyond randomly stumbling upon it come to mind. That said, I don't see any pressing need to try and speed up this process, myself.
To my thinking, Gemini’s base value is a very simple document format that supports linking and is designed to prevent design from getting in the way of content.
All value beyond that is what people come here and create.
If that doesn’t grab someone’s attention, he/she probably won’t fit in around here. Chasing “critical mass” is a mistake because this is a place for people to build, not to consume.
👻 darkghost · Nov 28 at 18:30:
I think this is a big appeal. Building and not consuming. And the nostalgia that tickles in people harkens to an early web that was still very much in a building phase.
It can be. But we have to come here and make things for here.
Halfassed Web to gemini conversions with no thoughts given to document structure or navigation will just pollute everything as bad as AI content would.
Who is saying, “I can’t wait to get on gemini to read the exact same content I see on the web, but with a screwed up document structure and no pictures”?
How can Gemini attract consistent activity? — Beyond the sliver of early adopters and enthusiasts who are drawn to Gemini for experimental- or ideological reasons, what practical value could Gemini offer the average internet user? Can we come up with something tangible and non-ideological that can actually be felt by the user, to the point where it would give them a reason to use Gemini over other platforms? The one argument that I can think of is that Gemini offers respite from the...