2018-03-05
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Sean Tilly (someone I don't know yet) has asked on mastodon[0] about
the recurring mentions of gopher and what's so special about it. This
got me thinking and these are my reasons why I think gopher is
interesting:

It is simple: There are no fancy frameworks to learn, the programs
needed to run for hosting gopher yourself is tiny compared to other
things on the internet.

Because it is simple and way off the mainstream it envourages a do
it yourself attitude. Almost noone is a consumer of some 'publishing'
platform, everyone is making it up as they go. And for the people
that keep on using it you can see a lot of unique and different
styles in creating and presenting content.

So not only in terms of protocols, complexity and software but also
in the mindset of its current users, gopher is the anti-thesis to
the 'commercial' web.

This kind of like feels a lot like when people started typing out
HTML pages manually and experimenting with linking styles, how to
communicate with others etc.

Gopher is still a lot simpler than that though, kind of like the
web how it could have been for people.

So, I ask you, dear reader: What does gopher mean to you?


___References________________________________________________________

[0]: https://social.nasqueron.org/@deadsuperhero/99630052661982090