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"All the benefits of Gopher [...] can also be achieved with stripped-down web pages" Can be achieved, but aren't. I'd love a consistent, stripped-down interfac

by rikkus 10y ago

"All the benefits of Gopher [...] can also be achieved with stripped-down web pages" Can be achieved, but aren't. I'd love a consistent, stripped-down interface. The web doesn't give me this (it doesn't matter if it _could_).

simonh 10y ago
As a client you have no control over this though, because you can't make people provide services using Gopher instead of HTTP. To put it another way, for someone wanting to provide a service it's daft to choose Gopher 'because it's lightweight'. If you're providing the service, nobody can stop you providing a lightweight HTTP service and in fact doing so is mind numbingly easy. Just do it. Or provide a URL link to an FTP server. Gopher was basically just a nicer to use menu based alternative to ftp, but visual browser ftp clients are pretty much that now anyway. Having said all that, it is kind of cool that Gopher is still around. I was using it years before HTTP even existed. If Gopher is going to exits then yes, being lightweight is one of it's strengths, but pretending that this meaningfully distinguishes it from HTTP doesn't strike me as a very strong argument. I suspect a lot of it's attraction is techie cultural exclusivity and contrariness. Not that I have anything against those things whatsoever.
ramblerman 10y ago
> The web doesn't give me this (it doesn't matter if it _could_). If it was important then the web would cater to it. It's simple economics. We could create protocols for all the sub needs and desires that people may have but that would be restrictive.
- mjburgess 10y ago
  Popularity =/= Economic Viability =/= Importance. The market is NOT a mechanism for delivering what is important.
- sp332 10y ago
  The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay sane on autoplaying video ad-covered sites.
- dredmorbius 10y ago
  Gresham's law, market for lemons.

by rikkus 10y ago

simonh 10y ago

As a client you have no control over this though, because you can't make people provide services using Gopher instead of HTTP. To put it another way, for someone wanting to provide a service it's daft to choose Gopher 'because it's lightweight'. If you're providing the service, nobody can stop you providing a lightweight HTTP service and in fact doing so is mind numbingly easy. Just do it. Or provide a URL link to an FTP server. Gopher was basically just a nicer to use menu based alternative to ftp, but visual browser ftp clients are pretty much that now anyway. Having said all that, it is kind of cool that Gopher is still around. I was using it years before HTTP even existed. If Gopher is going to exits then yes, being lightweight is one of it's strengths, but pretending that this meaningfully distinguishes it from HTTP doesn't strike me as a very strong argument. I suspect a lot of it's attraction is techie cultural exclusivity and contrariness. Not that I have anything against those things whatsoever.

ramblerman 10y ago

> The web doesn't give me this (it doesn't matter if it _could_). If it was important then the web would cater to it. It's simple economics. We could create protocols for all the sub needs and desires that people may have but that would be restrictive.

mjburgess 10y ago
Popularity =/= Economic Viability =/= Importance. The market is NOT a mechanism for delivering what is important.
sp332 10y ago
The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay sane on autoplaying video ad-covered sites.
dredmorbius 10y ago
Gresham's law, market for lemons.