These last few weeks I've seen a handful / _/ / /
of people discovering Gopher which is \_______/_\___/____/\___/____/_
fantastic. Doubly fantastic because they've / \/ \/ / \
not come through the usual channels. / _/ /_ _/
Generally when I see someone new pop up in /- / _/ /
on Gopher they've entered via SDF or the \________/\________/\___/____/
tildesphere but of the recent few I've seen,
two have been drawn in through the YouTube Linux community and one just I
don't know, just curiosity I suppose.
This file wasn't isn't really in response to them directly and I
wholeheartedly welcome them to the underground, the more the merrier, but some
of the cross talk in the comments on one of the videos reminded me of a
similar situation that happened earlier this year and I kinda wanted to get
this off my chest.
Gopher has a reputation as a dead or forgotten protocol and a lot of people
who rediscover it, maybe not them directly but the people they're discussing
it with or in some cases their fan base, do so with an attitude that they're
going to "bring it back" but gopher was always here, and the idea that a
blogger, musician or talking head on social media or in the comments section
is going to "bring it back" gets my back up somewhat.
I've been here for a little while, FAX SEX is closing in on two years and
the baud.baby is about a month from its first birthday, but that isn't really
very long when you consider the SDF alone has had users providing Gopher
content fairly consistently for, what, 13-14 years? Yes, compared to the
surface web it's microscopic but you can't look at that wealth of content and
say with a straight face that Gopher is dead or forgotten.
Again, I've got no desire to be any kind of gatekeeper, I absolutely don't
want to dissuade anyone from jumping into Gopher and know no one can be
expected to know everything about everything, I just feel that if you're
coming in to an existing space you should do your due diligence and immerse
yourself in and learn about the space and its inhabitants before crowning
yourself the savior they didn't really need.
In that same vein, so frequently these fair weather visitors bring nothing
to Gopher for Gopher, often patting themselves on the back for mirroring their
web presence or similar. This is, in my opinion, not what Gopher needs and is
certainly not a good way to generate long-term interest. You might find one or
two Gopher users who appreciate being able to access your content without
leaving their comfort zone but that's preaching to the choir. Of those already
accessing your content via the Web, a handful might check the Gopher space out
for the novelty but not many are likely to become Gopher converts. It helps
very little to "bring gopher back".
Gopher needs users and advocates, absolutely, but more than anything I feel
it needs people creating content for Gopher, people who make it more than just
a low-fi shadow of the Web. If you want to "bring gopher back" you need to
give people a reason to come with you you on the journey, beyond just novelty
or curiosity.
Lastly, Gopher needs community and has community, and if you're intention
is to "bring it back" you'll need to find that. Gopher space is small, not
everyone knows everyone but everyone knows someone who knows someone and
though you don't have to be part of the community you need to acknowledge that
this community exists and that you're coming into an occupied space, not a
blank canvas for you to project your idea of Gopher onto. You will not "bring
gopher back" alone, you'll be effecting the people who are already there.
One last time, I don't mean any hostility here, join Gopher, tell your
subscribers, tell your audience, tell your mom, but I love Gopher and I want
to see it thrive. Leading by claiming it's a dead or abandoned protocol or
treating it as a punchline doesn't feel like the right way to do it and
doesn't sit well with me.