Luckily Gopher is still alive, and in fact on the Gopher mailing list there was a thread earlier this week about `gopher://` over TLS [1]; in fact you can stil

Luckily Gopher is still alive, and in fact on the Gopher mailing list there was a thread earlier this week about `gopher://` over TLS [1]; in fact you can still use `gopher://` either natively (by using `lynx` or a number of Firefox plugins), or through a HTTP gateway like [2] [3]. (There are countless servers and clients out there.) Also there is a newly developed Gopher alternative called Gemini [4] that uses TLS by default, and supports natively as an alternative to HTML a Markdown-based simplified format. (Given that Gemini and Gopher are much alike, most of the content is also available over `gopher://`, and via an HTTP gateway it can be accessed from a plain browser, like for example [5].) [1] https://lists.debian.org/gopher-project/2020/03/msg00005.html https://lists.debian.org/gopher-project/2020/03/msg00005.htm... [2] https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/ https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/ [3] https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw [4] https://gemini.circumlunar.space/ https://gemini.circumlunar.space/ [5] https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher://zaibatsu.circumlunar.space:70/1/~solderpunk/gemini/ https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw?gopher://zaibatsu.circ... ---- However if Gopher or Gemini is "just too much", one could be active in pushing web publishers (and thus browser providers) into simplifying their web presence by: disabling JavaScript and thus background fetches and workers, cookies, fonts (thus including "icon fonts"), etc., forcing HTTPS and caching, disabling anything except `GET` methods. I've tried some of these myself, and unfortunately the experience is one of two extremes: * either everything just works, and it works flawlessly, the page loads instantly, no pesky cookie consent popups, no adds, and it's just a pleasure to browse that site; (most "small" blogs fall into this category;) * either nothing works, and most of the times I get a "blank" page or just a paragraph "JavaScript is required to run this application"; (how hard is it to provide a basic HTML?) (and unfortunately even documentation sites fall in this category, like for example Go-lang's own documentation site...) (most of the times I just close that site, or if I really want to access it, I open it in a "normal" Firefox / Chrome profile;) So, like with any civic right, everything is gained through participation: if we want a simpler web, we need to actively start consuming a simpler web. :)