< Is gemini a read-only protocol?
Hello ~lufte!
I personally agree with Drew, that gemini is a read-only protocol. This is why I have an email address listed on my capsule (not on the front page though, but it can be found). And since the mailing list died I receive only little email in response to what I publish.
I am much too old to miss the so called "social web", which in my not so humble opinion is not "social" at all. I do not participate. And I do not miss it either. If you find someones post good, then instead of pressing the non existent like button, take the time to find a contact address and write a nice email. Even if you disagree, write a nice email. Or write a post with "Re: <original title>" in the subject line. Cosmos will find it. This slight increase in impedance (not to have a like button) is absolutely sufficient to switch like/shit storms off. They do not exists, or at least I have not seen any in gemini. I have seen heated discussions on the mailing list.
The perceived lack of interactivity sparks a discussion every so often. I would like to encourage you (and whoever is reading this) to embrace the limitation and explore, what can be done within its limits. The perception, that feature X is missing, is mostly translated directly from the big web. If you like the big web, by all means, use it! If you like gemini, by all means use it! If you need to upload files to your capsule, by all means use a protocol, which is suitable for this. I publish my capsule on ew.srht.site, which is published directly from the associated git repository. So I use git:// as the protocol to upload files, and not gemini. I publish my atom feed via antenna. Antenna is a feed aggregator, which is fed by publishing authors. It does not crawl. It does not poll. It is imho one of the best aspects of gemini space. Use it, if you want your blog to be noticed.
All is still quite well. If the number of participants goes up by a factor of 1000 or so, I promise there will be effects of scaling, or rather the lack thereof: there will be filters needed (e.g. to not see entries in languages I can't understand), there will be trolls and beeblebroxians and hipsters and what not. This is all very normal. Everyone has to develop the skills to navigate the jungle. There is no simple answer. Big web tries to make you believe there are simple answers. But look closely, there are not.
All that being said: You (or anyone) does not have to agree with me.
TL;DR: I personally perceive the lack of interactivity in gemini:// as it's biggest feature. YMMV of course.
~bartender? How about another round of coffee/tea/water/juice whatever, after this ... ahem, lecture? Oh, you already prepared a tray of drinks? Yay! It's all on me, and long live ~bartender!
Cheers!
* grabs a drink *
Thanks mate! Next one is on me.
Yes, I kind of agree with you, although I do have fond memories of web forums and communities, where even if super basic, they all provided some sort of interaction mechanism in the website itself. But maybe email is the way to go... I don't really care about "like buttons" but I guess there's no real difference between that and a commenting system: if you provide a way to support one you end up supporting the other.
¡Salud!