------------------------------------------------------------------- +title: Why all those protocols +date: Tue, 06 Feb 2024 20:03:56 +0100 +author: -fab- ------------------------------------------------------------------- __ __.__ _________ / \ / \ |__ ___.__.\_____ \ \ \/\/ / | < | | / __/ \ /| Y \___ | | | \__/\ / |___| / ____| |___| \/ \/\/ <___> This post was made because someone on BBS made clear that he's done with gopher since gemini exists. Here is my answer to that. Why do I use all those protocols? ================================= On my server there are several services running now: gemini, finger, gopher and a http(s) server. The web server just proxies my gemini capsule to the www with kineto. I even host my own email server. But why do I use all of these protocols and not just gemini? The short answer: It's a lot of fun! In some more sentences I have to say that all of these protocols have their entitlement and I want to promote the use of all of them. They all belong to the smolnet and I like to provide all the services one could make use of. And I want more people in the community to run these services and put them to good use. And gopher is not dead! Gemini protocol =============== The gemini protocol was the first service I set up. I didn't have much of an idea about gopher back then and I thought gemini is the superior protocol. I used the amfora TUI client for a long time and it only supports gemini. I never really liked the graphical user interface of Lagrange although it's great software. I just used it to open links I couldn't open with amfora. -- Why gemini: When I heared about gemini, this was my introduction to the smolnet/indieweb. It made completely clear that I don't want to go further with the way the internet is heading these days and in future. World Wide Web ============== After a while I wanted to make my gemini content accessible via the world wide web (without cookies/javascript of course). So I installed kineto from Drew Devault as a proxy and nginx as a webserver and there we go. -- Why the WWW: Maybe I can convince some people who are using the web exclusively to try a more user centric protocol and make them aware of the smolnet. Discovery of telescope ====================== I was using makew0rlds amfora Gemini commandline client for nearly the whole time since I discovered Gemini in 2021. I always prefer terminal / commandline applications over full blown GUI apps - so no Lagrange. And I didn't really dive into the Gopher and Finger protocols, because amfora lacked support for these features and I didn't know of a terminal client that supports all these which I liked. Then I discovered 'telescope' from Omar Polo - and it was a revelation! Telescope is a TUI / commandline client for Gemini, Gopher and Finger. It's easy to style and configure. Now I could hop from Gemini to Gopher to Finger back and forth and that opened up my mind for all the other protocols, because surfing the SmolNet with telescope is a breeze. It's small, lean and fast. I can only recommend telescope to every SmolNet surfer who prefers the terminal like I do. Finger ====== After this revelation I tried the finger services that 'typed-hole.org' and 'thebackupbox.net' provided and was intrigued. I brought up my own finger addresses which serve different purposes. E.g. with 'finger fab@redterminal.org' you get my contact information and some words about what I'm doing now for the foreseeable future. Like some people have a /now page on their websites. -- Why Finger: Finger is a very fast and nerdy way to get some specific information about a user or service. Gopher ====== Gophernicus is a gopher server that is also started by inetd when a connection comes in. This was the last service I set up (for now). There are still a lot of gopher holes with tons of useful information and gopher belongs to the smolnet just like gemini does. I love to browse the gopher space since I use telescope. And all the interesting places I visited induced the wish to create my own gopher hole. -- Why Gopher: The gopher community started the whole smolnet movement. Even gemini came from a long time gopher user - Solderpunk. It's the origin of all this. Other protocols? ================ I haven't messed around with spartan or nex, because they seem to be a little too made-up and not widely used (I know I'll make some people angry with this statement. I don't care). Maybe later. What do you think? ================== If you have some thoughts, comments or suggestions, please let me know. Send me an email to or follow me on Mastodon/ActivityPub <@fab@pleroma.envs.net>. All in all - Have fun! -fab-