Monday, December 3rd, 2018

	On #tags in gopherspace
	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is without  a trace  of a doubt,  that today  is the best  time for
gopherspace at least in the last twenty  years, if not ever. Right now
Bongusta aggregates 45 phlogs and if I had a bit more time to check my
notes  and  add  The Worthy  Ones,  it  would  be maybe  47 or 48. New
gopher servers with new content emerge every month.  When I created my
own  gopherhole  seven  years  and  six months  ago, the shape  of the
gopher  universe  was quite different.  It was a dark place  with  few
beacons shining all  alone in the night. Most of the fresh content was
generated (news, weather, stats)  or  file-oriented  (gopher mirror of
this, gopher mirror of that). There were more  gopher server  software
projects  alive  than phlogs. I even  didn't  have  to bookmark  those
I visited frequently, because I remembered URLs of all four of them.

But as more  people come,  more content is created cross-platform  for
both  web and gopher.  That  brings  things  like mark-up  remnants in
plaintext  or one more  step in  gopher  menu  just to select  whether
I want to see a text or HTML version of the post.  I'm not exactly fan
of these, but I can live with them, because  I see some benefits, even
though  sometimes just for  the author.  But hey, better this  than no
content whatsoever.

But what just don't get, is the usage of hashtags in gopherspace.

Hashtags were pioneered by two social networks: Twitter  &  Instagram.
The first was limited  in post size  to less  than one SMS  and in the
beginning with less-than-perfect search possibilities.  The latter was
(and still is) visually oriented  and therefore quite unsearchable, so
marking the photo  with a describing tag was the only option, enabling
it to be found.

None of this is the case of gopher.  There is  no hashtag system  that
can describe well formulated  and structured text better than the text
itself.  We do not need wheelchairs called #tags, because we can stand
on solid two legs: good texts and good search.

I know, I won't convince anyone to stop doing hashtags  in their posts
and it's not  even my point  to do so.  I just wanted to say it aloud.
Gopherspace used to be my refuge from Web 2.0  (and even Web 1.0)  and
it kind  of hurts to see it  infected with a plague  originated there.
Especially when it seems to be completely unnecessary.

PS:  This post  was edited  after I discovered,  that  someone took it
personally. It wasn't meant so and I'd prefer a debate about the topic
over personal hostilities.

.