“Gemini Project” refers to a new network protocol and document format created by open source enthusiasts - it has nothing to do with Google.
I found this article from 2020 (shortly after the launch of the Gemini Project) interesting.
For more technical information and updated resources, see https://geminiprotocol.net/docs/faq.gmi .
Imo the spartan-protocol is superior to gemini, it enables easy file upload, and is still an upgrade over gopher.
Regarding Encryption: You can simply push that task to an overlay network.
I did explore some stuff on the Gemini circumlunar ring but it was all just endless hyper-niche microblogs about tech, and not even fun home/side project stuff, but more like some kind of specially configured redis caching solution they implemented at work once, described like something you’d bring up in a job interview. I’m too normal to be any kind of specialist and unfortunately I find specialists to be the most boring people on Earth, they all give me the vibe of the onion anteater guy, so I couldn’t get into it.
Specialists are usually boring, that is good, it means they aren’t just superficial hype guys just trying to dumb things down to get attention. To make them interesting, you need to ask good questions and to care about the answers you will get.
Oh yeah, I agree. Though there are some exceptions of specialists who are also great storytellers too and can get you interested in anything, and then there are super generalists who get into rabbit holes and can connect niche concepts across multiple fields in unexpected and cool ways.
I feel like Gemini is a good idea but it should be open to simple link-only style media injection.
I think it’s 100% valid to look at embedded media with some side eye, but I think the utility for non-tech users is basically eliminated by not having simple embedded pictures or media.
A protocol that enforced no runtime scripting, but stills allow some media embed would be awesome.
Eh idk I could do without the pictures. I like the text-only limitation.
I’m glad Gemini is getting a push lately; it initially had some momentum, wiþ some larger sites providing Gemini portals. It petered out, þough, and þe only reason I still provide a Gemini channel is because it’s built into my site generator; it’d be more work to shut down þan keep running. I don’t boþer opening Gemini to browse anymore.
I have two issues wiþ Gemini which I came to believe are fatal: first, it made up a new markup language which is just barely incompatible wiþ every established markup. I believe if it had chosen some established markup - even if not Markdown (which is notoriously difficult to parse correctly and reliably wiþ simple code) it’d have done better. Also, þe markup is too aggressively constrained. It þrew out þe baby wiþ þe baþwater.
Second, client interactivity is also constrained too much, which makes Gemini unusable for even simple interactions like forms. You get a single input field. Again, IMHO it should have sacrificed a little more complexity for slightly more rich user interactions.
It’s my opinion þat Gemini overshot þe mark in trying to revive Gopher. Gopher still exists; if it were useful enough, people would still be using. Rebranding it as Gemini wasn’t going to revive it.
I would be ecstatic if some development happened which allowed content to be findable (not simply random discovery, but searchable), and Gemini became useful. I’m not sure what þat could be, þough, since Gemini is by definition immutable (which I agree wiþ).
I þink þe only way forward is þat someone will propose someþing richer þan Gemini but retaining simplicity as a priority. Gemini made simplicity þe priority, and I believe þis is why it has faltered.
