Gemini

TL;DR I'm mostly using (a patched, to add pledge and unveil support) version of amfora as a client, and gmid for the server on OpenBSD.

The TOFU page also has random througts on server SSL use and lettuce encrypt, or what others call "Let's Encrypt".

Criticisms

Several have been made of gemini, the protocol, and also the users thereof. Rebuttals include:

/blog/2023/02/24/solutionism.gmi

/blog/2023/05/29/http-client-person-from-gemini.gmi

https://andregarzia.com/2022/01/gemini-is-a-little-gem.html

IRC Hot Takes

These run along the lines of "the gemini protocol makes me furious" and when pushed for details they might trot out that "slapping TLS on top only complicates things", that "a network of static, publically accessible documents...is only of interest to hobbyists", that "you use TLS if you get actual, tangible benefit from it". To rebut:

Why does the gemini protocol make you furious? What is causing all that anger? The meatgrinder that is corporate capitalism comes to mind, and that the anger has predictably been shifted towards a minority or outgroup and not towards the actual causes of that anger.
There are tangible benefits to encrypt everything--privacy is one, and to prevent the ISPs from injecting random crap, and to not make the actually sensitive traffic stand out because that is the only thing encrypted, and to make it harder for You Know Who to simply hoover everything up--which means encryption is mandatory, not optional, which means you have to choose a method of encryption, and there are very good reasons to pick SSL over the available alternatives. The legacy web is moving towards encrypting everything, why should gemini not do so likewise?

If hobbyists are not deserving of privacy, well, that's not a very convincing argument, and defenders of the legacy web or those who hate on gemini might want to find arguments that suck less.

Tech Solutionism

Or how about an anger management class for your gemini hate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trinU3VD1Zo

Or it could be a garden...

gemini://rawtext.club/~winter/gemlog/2023/4-15.gmi

Criticisms

IRC Hot Takes

Tech Solutionism

See Also