solderpunk solderpunk at SDF.ORG
Tue May 12 20:44:43 BST 2020
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ``` Greetings Gemininauts! I just wanted to wish a warm welcome to all the new subscribers to thislist who have discovered Gemini in the wake of our recent exposure onHacker News and Lobste.rs. I realise this is slightly overdue, butperhaps this is a nice introduction to the relatively relaxed pace ofdevelopment here in Geminiland! Not that we are opposed to gettingstuff done, but we are still a small community of volunteers and thetypical pace matches that reality. New energy and new ideas are very welcome, so please feel free to jumpin to the mailing list and the community more broadly. Unsurprisingly, given that you are the kind of people who read HackerNews, many of you have already started on Gemini-related softwareprojects. This is welcome, please keep us informed about them.However, Gemini is probably already setting new world records for theratio of software implementations to available content for an internetprotocol! More important than anything else for the growth of thecommunity and the refinement of the protocol is *content*. Good contentwill encourage people to install clients, check the place out, andspread the word. Ambitious content creation projects help us figure outwhat the protocol's strong and weak points are and can help make sureany future changes are based on real world experience and not trying toanticipate the future. Any and all content is good, but Gemini-exclusive content is better, andcontent that isn't *about* Gemini is best of all. There's nothing wrongwith writing about the protocol - I do it myself, in a gemlog dedicatedto the subject - but we don't want to become an insular community whichonly talks about itself. Adoption of the protocol by newcomers will bemuch more likely if there's stuff in Geminispace which is of value orinterest for people who don't already know much about it. If you want to get started publishing content in Geminispace, anybody onthis mailing list can email me an ssh public key in order to get sftpaccess to a user directory at gemini.circumlunar.space, where you canhost anything which doesn't get me into legal hot water or bring theproject as a whole into ill repute. There are other places out thereoffering user accounts, too - explore the list of known hosts atgemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/servers/. However, be aware that manyof these places are pre-existing communities who have started offeringGemini hosting alongside other servicces (like gopher or web hosting,email, shell-based BBSes, etc). Don't be rude and join one of theseplaces just for the free Geminispace if you have no intention ingenuinely participating in their broader community! If the idea of a"pubnix" or "tilde" community is wholy new to you, I strongly encourageyou to check it out! Many of the earliest and most activeparticipants in Geminispace "come from" one of these communities, andthey might offer some insight into the perspectives, attitudes andideals which are prominent in Geminispace. That's all from me for now. Welcome once again, thanks for your timeand interest and thus far wholly positive comments and contributions tothis fledgling slice of the internet. I hope you stick around! Cheers,Solderpunk