Gemini Capsule Update

Nothing much to report here. I updated the capsule structure to try make it more minimal and even easier to manage.

Now, I only have one page (Gemlog) for all my posts. I also introduced a ’tagging’ page for attempting to sort the posts be category as opposed to date. I kept the nano log separate.

The reason behind this is probably already obvious to people already very familiar with Gemini/Gopher, but took me a while to notice. I was still thinking of the capsule in ‘html/css’ terms, i.e., trying to mimic a blog/webpage. However, after spending a couple of months browsing gemini/gopher, you really start to realise how content-driven the experience is and how style-resistant it is. The best capsules/gopherholes seem to be the least flashy and are literally just a directory with files inside.

I really love that. Maybe its just fetishism related to a love of the linux terminal, but it’s so nice just browsing around for ‘files’.

Yes, it’s definitely possible to add a lot more ‘features’ to a gemini capsule, and there are some amazing capsules experimenting with all kinds of information types and modes of presentation, but something about this format seems to reward a ’less is more’ approach. The protocol really tries to be as unobtrusive as possible. It does take some adjusting to, but it is so rewarding.

Also, I added my ‘journal’ posts from gopher to this capsule. I guess this is related to another ‘adjustment’ thing for people trying gemini for the first time. Once you start having multiple ‘spaces’ (http,gopher,gemini) you also have to start mentally compartmentalizing the different types of ‘content’ that matches each of these spaces. I don’t really like that.

So, I’ll have this gemini capsule be my main ‘place’ on the smolweb, and the http site be the main place on the web. This division of content makes more sense to me than the division I had between gemini and gopher. The web/html seems more suited to long-form types of writing. I could be wrong about that though.