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An alternative decentralized internet for sharing text and media: The Gemini Protocol (geminiprotocol.net)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) by HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org to c/buyfromeu@feddit.org

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It is similar to the old gopher: text files, links, and images form a hypertext optimized for reading. Text is formatted like Markdown - but even simpler.

Clients display text, like an eBook, or images / media.

Since it does not use "addictive by design" UI elements, like feeds, timelines, likes and upvotes, colorful and distracting elements, endless scrolling, as well as comments that invite trolling, it feels a lot calmer.

Servers can run on a PC or Raspberry Pi which needs half a Watt of power. No FAANG companies needed. No expert knowledge needed - not more difficult than running a file sharing client.

I think it is the right thing for defense of democracy and sharing your voice in the digital realm.

Edit: If you see comments here which kinda miss the point, appeal to emotions, have faulty logic, or depart from entirely incorrect assumptions: Please keep in mind that big US tech companies can't say "that's bad, how will we shovel money with this?". Please use your critical thinking skills - they are much needed here!

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[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org -1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Well, I'd guess that 99% of WWW pages do advertising and tracking, and if you include personal pages on Facebook, Instagram and whatnot, it is probably over 99.99%. With Wikipedia and Arch Wiki as notable exceptions that comes to my mind.

In the meantime, exactly 0.0 % of gemini protocol pages do advertising and tracking. How come?

[–] Libb@piefed.social 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Well, I’d guess that 99% of WWW pages do advertising and tracking, and if you include personal pages on Facebook, Instagram and whatnot, it is probably over 99.99%. With Wikipedia and Arch Wiki as notable exceptions that comes to my mind.

I'm not much into the guessing game. I'm also not a gambler.

In the meantime, exactly 0.0 % of gemini protocol pages do advertising and tracking. How come?

I'm more interested in encouraging people to transition toward more open and more accessible technologies than preaching them to 'adopt' a 'we-the-happy-few' technology for not other reason than me fancying it (you may have noticed I did not mention the tool I'm using to create my static website: the tool matters not. It should not.)

I'm glad to know you've found whatever it was you were looking for in using Gemini. Alas, you have not answered any of my questions. Your conviction is just a personal opinion, it is not information or facts I can use to reconsider my own choices, and it certainly doesn't give me any hint on why Gemini would be a better choice than the tool I've been using so far.

[–] HaraldvonBlauzahn@feddit.org 1 points 2 days ago

accessible technologies

In respect to accessibility, the fact that Gemini focuses on actual text content makes it far easier to use accessibility tools like screen readers and Braille displays.

In fact, what is a real advantage is that there are also Genini clients which display in the terminal, and you can adjust the font size as you actually need. Myself I used that a lot when I had bad eye problems a while ago.