<=^= THE SKYDOCK =^=>
       OmegaPaladin's Gopherhole
       Welcome to my corner of the Underground Internet.  
       
       Gopher used to be the way to access information online.  Before 
       the World Wide Web, there was a powerful  protocol for accessing
       information and directories online.  I remember seeing guidance on
       Gopher citations for academic papers.  Then the Web happened.
       
       So why use Gopher?
       No Ads.  No spyware.  Just straightforward plain text.
       Gopher runs like lightning over any connection, even dialup.
       
       I will be duplicating a lot of this on a Gemini capsule, as I like the idea
       behind Gemini, and it has a bit more flexibility.
       
       Search all Gopherspace
 (QRY) Search Veronica-2
       
 (DIR) My Gopherlog - welcome to the Phlogosphere
       
 (HTM) Ricochet
       
       One of my hobbies is working as a Ricochet moderator and poster. Ricochet 
       is membership-drived site where most of the content is written by members, 
       and we have a Code of Conduct to keep things from degenerating.   My work 
       there has been linked by major bloggers, including Glenn Reynolds of 
       Instapundit.  One of my favorite parts of Ricochet is the fictional 
       writing by various members.  I decided to create a general archive of 
       Ricochet fiction here.
       
 (DIR) Ricochet Fiction Archive
       
       Shortened links for the Ricochet Fiction Archive
 (DIR) Gopher!
 (HTM) Web Proxy!
       
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       Useful text files archived:
       
 (TXT) Character Survival Advice
 (HTM) Originally from 
       Written by Willem Van Driel based on many suggestions, this delightful 
       text guide vanished into the ether.  I am preserving in on Gopher
       
       <----------------------------------------------------------------->
       
       From the Ashes is a Sci-Fi play by post game that I help run on
       SpaceBattles.com, a vBulletin webforum.  
 (HTM) You can access the subforum here:
       
 (DIR) From the Ashes 2.0 Rules in elegant retro plaintext.
       
       Shortened links for the FTA Retro Rules
 (DIR) Gopher!
 (HTM) Web Proxy!
       
       <----------------------------------------------------------------->
       
       So how do you get involved with the Underground Internet?
       
       First, it's a good idea to learn about Gopher.
       Quux and Floodgap are the hubs of Gopherspace, and have plenty of 
       useful information.  Floodgap has detailed information on 
       Gopher clients
 (DIR) gopher.floodgap.com
 (DIR) gopher.quux.org
       
       I recommend using OverbiteFF with Pale Moon, a web browser 
       that is like Firefox without the bloat and keeping the classic
       interface.  They play well together.
 (HTM) Pale Moon
 (HTM) OverbiteFF
       
       
       Then you can get an account on SDF.org, a public access UNIX 
       server, which has plenty of things to do besides Gopher.
       You will need to be verified, which only takes a few bucks
 (DIR) gopher://phlogosphere.org
       
       Make sure to read up on MKGOPHER and study the guides on the 
       Gopher server.  It's easy to write, especially compared to 
       HTML, but you need to have a cheat sheet for the syntax for
       making Gophermaps, which are the equivalent to webpages.
 (DIR) Gopher Server Guide
 (DIR) Example Gophermap
 (TXT) Gophermap for what you are reading now