I read this post yesterday:
gemini://tilde.team/~tomasino/journal/20211103-making-gemini-easy.gmi
I think Gemini really needs something like that to be accessible to non-tech people. What do you think? Is it a good idea? Is there hope that something like his proposal will be implemented?
2 years ago 路 馃憤 mc, devyl
[1] gemini://tilde.team/~tomasino/journal/20211103-making-gemini-easy.gmi
Apparently I decided to spend the day thinking about this:
gemini://skyjake.fi/gemlog/2021-11_re-making-gemini-easy.gmi 路 2 years ago
@negepezzannyitfiam I am actually saying that is easier. I wrote a guide on how setup a FreeBSD server with GMID and D.O.
You don't need to be an engineer to build up a server but you need to study a bit of documentation and show off interest in the subject. 路 2 years ago
@devyl I know exactly what you mean. The early web was a magical place :) I miss it too. I don't think Gemini will ever become mainstream though, but it would be nice to see different kinds of nerdy people here, not only tech nerds but also literature nerds, art nerds, language nerds etc. 路 2 years ago
@negepezzannyitfiam that's a different problem (business interests). maybe i just mourn the web back in my youth when "normal" poeple just started to using it. but the culture was very different - it was more free, more friendly and just more nerdy ;) 路 2 years ago
@benrob0329 I agree, such a guide would be a great starting point. I might write it sometime.
Another thing I've been thinking about is that if Titan becomes more widespread it can solve the accessibility problem pretty well. 路 2 years ago
@devyl I don't think the problem is with the people. It's with the fact that business interests on the web are aligned such that they bring out the worst of them. Gemini is explicitly designed to avoid this problem so I think it can be a nice place for everyone. 路 2 years ago
While I agree that dumbing down technology is ultimately worse for the user, I also see the point of trying to bring those otherwise intimidated into a "better" community.
The issues here are not unique to Gemini, but I think that Gemini has already started down the right path towards recitfying them. Conceptual simplicity is the key to reducing abstraction, and making education easier.
If people never need to learn, they likely never will. However, forcing them to lay a lot of groundwork just to start can also chase them away. I think that one solution might be to have a "Guide To Self-Hosting Gemini" which goes over the important bits of running a server. 路 2 years ago
it's a nice concept but do "we" really want users on gemini that don't (want) to understand it? on the www we have "all" folks and thats one of the biggest problems there. 路 2 years ago
gemlog.blue is as easy as it gets btw. midnight.pub is quite simple too. flounder is the same. does that lead to great content? not as much as one would think I guess, but certain people find it appealing 路 2 years ago
I don't think that creating a technical solution inherently leads to anyone creating good and useful content. technical people in general are very bad at figuring out what makes someone do something imho. personally I don't see ftp as a barrier at all. and ftp exists already 路 2 years ago
@remyabel if I interpreted the article correctly, it talks about creating content, not reading. Consumption is indeed easy with the tools you listed. But to have your own capsule, afaik you must either administer your own server (which I think isn't a level of tech savvyness you can expect non-tech people to have) or use a gemlog site that allows you to edit via HTTP which kind of defeats the purpose of Gemini in my opinion. It would be nice if geminispace were entirely self-contained and if you wouldn't have to leave your client to either consume or create content.
But I agree with the general statement that non-tech people CAN be tech savvy. 路 2 years ago
Nothing's stopping someone from adding this to an existing client, could even use something like Spartan/Titan/Iapetus to handle uploads. But someone has to write it. 路 2 years ago
@gnuserland it's easy for you and me but imagine a journalist, a lawyer, a biologist, or basically any non-tech person who could otherwise create amazing content here trying to set up a server.
It's easy for us because we have so much background knowledge that these people lack. I'm not saying they are incapable of doing it, only that they would probably never bother with it if they can click two buttons on Medium and start writing. 路 2 years ago
I think a Gemini server is enough easy to set-up if you compare it with something like Apache or Nginx... 馃 路 2 years ago