20250208-gopher_is_better_than_gemini.txt

A bit of a controversial post here. I believe 99% of Gemini users use
Gopher as well. I've critiqued Gemini before: it's more complex than
necessary. I recently looked back into it, looking at a tutorial to
start a Gemini site... It's more complicated than just publishing
files. They have to have the correct format to display things. You can
argue that gophermaps have the same limitation, but I'd rebut that
gophermaps are entirely optional in Gopher.

Gemini uses a Markdown-like formatting language. That's fine, but
constricting. Why can't I just format using regular text? In my brief
experience, a .gmi file is basically a gophermap with Markdown instead
of the goofy gopher syntax. I have a bit of a different idea of what
Gopher should be: navigation separate from content. While some do glog
with gophermaps instead of regular text files, I find it easier to
just keep things separate. If I need to post a "link", I can just
paste the text at the end as a citation. While it's nice to have a
"clickable" link, it's also nice to have tables and videos and all
other sorts of Web 2.0 junk, too.

Gemini is also widely unsupported. You have to grab a specific Gemini
browser just to view it...or use a proxy. Sorry, but why should anyone
have to use a proxy or a specific piece of software to browse? Lynx,
edbrowse, w3m, Overbite, etc. all support Gopher. Many of them support
other protocols, too: no new software needed.

In Gopher, you just upload the file and it's there. You may have to
change permissions, but that's it. It's done. You don't have to worry
about SSL or TLS or whatever authentication. You want the content, you
get the content. While this may be more of a Lynx advantage than a
Gopher one, you can use 7 itemtypes to create instant search engines
in Lynx. I have the HELPFILE variable in Lynx set to a Gopher Idiotbox
cgi script. That means if I want to search for a Utuub video, all I
need to do is type "?search terms." It also works with text search
history, so if I were looking for "specific text", I could also just
arrow up to it after typing '?'. Again, it's more of a Lynx advantage,
but that's how it implements Gopher. Lynx doesn't understand Gemini
links. While specific software is often a barrier to entry with Gopher
nowadays, it's even more so a barrier to entry because I've yet to run
across a Gemini browser that also supports HTTP.

I understand that Gemini is supposed to be a bridge between the
"privacy" of HTTPS/SSL and the simplicity of Gopher, but all I believe
it's actually doing is providing a small diversion from WWW and Gopher
and adding almost nothing substantial. I've tried Gemini, but even
using one of the browsers was just hysterical: the one I installed
referred to itself on its Gemini start page as a Gopher browser. I
mean it doesn't get much clear cut in how redundant Gemini is with
Gopher than that.

I respect the creators of Gemini a lot. I just think it was a
foolhardy endeavor to try to force encryption on simple text and
create a protocol which very, very few browsers support. I think they
really could have tried to work updating gopher+ and made the SSL
optional.