https://hackaday.com/2023/12/29/the-gopher-revival-is-upon-us/
--- Synchronet 3.19a-Linux NewsLink 1.113

dozens <dozens@tilde.team> writes:

https://hackaday.com/2023/12/29/the-gopher-revival-is-upon-us/

Forget it.

It will stay a niche, but given that several browsers can jump between
Gopher, HTTP, Gemini, Finger, ... , the oldstyle (protocol diverse) web
still will stay a thing for an interesting group of neighbours.

I definitely hope that those protocol separatists will disappear. It
makes no sense to split the already small community wanting a fast and
traps free diverse web further into competing subgroups.

It just makes more sense when all pages are just a click away from stuff
using other protocols. Just stop the JS trash. We already managed to
make Java and Flash disappear!

The Smolweb will be most attractive when it does not lock out
neighbours.

Fight broken browsers!
--
I do not bite, I just want to play.
--- Synchronet 3.19a-Linux NewsLink 1.113

On 2024-01-01, yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> wrote:

dozens <dozens@tilde.team> writes:

https://hackaday.com/2023/12/29/the-gopher-revival-is-upon-us/

Forget it.

It will stay a niche, but given that several browsers can jump between Gopher, HTTP, Gemini, Finger, ... , the oldstyle (protocol diverse) web
still will stay a thing for an interesting group of neighbours.

Niche is OK. The WWW has turned into a toilet. Useless.

I'm newly re-interested in obscure, little-known forums of close-knit
people of similar interest. And here I am.

The modern web can suck it. Social media can drown in its own toxins.

Niche is OK with me.
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

On 2025-11-21, randymon <randymon@tilde.club> wrote:

On 2024-01-01, yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> wrote:

dozens <dozens@tilde.team> writes:

https://hackaday.com/2023/12/29/the-gopher-revival-is-upon-us/

Forget it.

It will stay a niche, but given that several browsers can jump between
Gopher, HTTP, Gemini, Finger, ... , the oldstyle (protocol diverse) web
still will stay a thing for an interesting group of neighbours.

I'm newly re-interested in obscure, little-known forums of close-knit
people of similar interest. And here I am.

Welcome here!

The modern web can suck it. Social media can drown in its own toxins.

Niche is OK with me.

My sentiments exactly. I was into the SmolWeb style before SmolWeb
was a name. Now i view the web standards bodies and mainstream
browsers as thoroughly sold out to the profit motive.

As a kid i had limited online access. I would use sneakernet to copy
what friends got from a BBS. Once i used an AOL free trial to obtain
the latest version of NetHack. Then i never touched AOL again, not
even with a ten foot pole [1].

Now that's how i feel about the modern web. I may use a corporate
mandated browser to obtain some bits i need from github. Once i
have the bits, i will close my browser and i won't touch github with
a ten foot pole.

[1] Pole, 10-foot, 5 cp, 8 lbs <https://pathfinder.d20srd.org/coreRulebook/equipment.html>

See also:

<gopher://tilde.club/1/~freet/gophhub/>
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

Probably using oldstyle multi protocol and multi document format
browsers now has turned into a nice too.

I'm definitely not pro-JS and I would not get my stuff written in a less capable "markup" than at least old-style HTML. I need anchors and
multiple links per line, occasionally an image and lots of code blocks.
For Code I want 80 CpL, for prose I use 72 Cpl and am even thinking
about a bit less. Too long lines just suck. After enough experiments
with manually written HTML I switched to Org-Mode and export my stuff to
HTML without JS, where some grains of CSS to control text size and line
width.

In Chawan[C], so in e.g. Xterm without switching the font width, that
still looks bearable, definitely better than with Elinks or W3M.

Older screenshot, newer Chawan now calculates the colour palette a bit differently, the result now is brighter.

<http://yeti.freeshell.org/chawan-screenshots/20250104-152317__chawan__orgbabel_notes.png>

I don't consider my stuff as writing for the public, it's more like my
self written cheat sheets or outsourced memory. Having that accessible
for digital neighbours is helpful in some discussions, but I don't think
about my stuff as being "published". I think that's currently is only accessible via I2P and Tor. That may change again. Maybe even as HTML
via Nex or Gopher.

<nex://yeti.freeshell.org:70/users/yeti/nex/a-little-secret.html> <https://portal.mozz.us/nex/yeti.freeshell.org:70/users/yeti/nex/a-little-secret.html>

Not needing CGIs at all, FTP and SFTP may be not a bad idea too, but for neighbours without "good" browsers, I should think about a gateway on a
pubnix for those first.

____________

[C]: Chawan is a TUI web (and (S)FTP, Gopher, Gemini, ...) browser with
CSS, inline image and JavaScript support.
<https://sr.ht/~bptato/chawan/>
--
2. Hitchhiker 3: (134) Zaphod felt he was teetering on the edge of
madness and wondered if he shouldn't just jump over and have done with
it.
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

On 2025-11-22, yeti <yeti@tilde.institute> wrote:

I'm definitely not pro-JS and I would not get my stuff written in a less capable "markup" than at least old-style HTML. I need anchors and
multiple links per line, occasionally an image and lots of code blocks.
For Code I want 80 CpL, for prose I use 72 Cpl and am even thinking
about a bit less. Too long lines just suck. After enough experiments
with manually written HTML I switched to Org-Mode and export my stuff to
HTML without JS, where some grains of CSS to control text size and line width.

I don't consider my stuff as writing for the public, it's more like my
self written cheat sheets or outsourced memory. Having that accessible
for digital neighbours is helpful in some discussions, but I don't think about my stuff as being "published". I think that's currently is only accessible via I2P and Tor. That may change again. Maybe even as HTML
via Nex or Gopher.

I enjoyed reading your enthusiastic post. I use Org-Mode regularly
and i don't even use Emacs. :-) (vim & Orgzly-revived)

I've been thinking about what i would do if the profit motive
compromised open access at the IP level. I had fantasies about offline
UUCP or NNCP via sneakernet over flash drive drops. But i think i would
simply spend less time in front of the screen and more time with books
and the natural world.
--- Synchronet 3.20a-Linux NewsLink 1.2