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Grex > Agora > #21: What happened to Grex's Gopher server? | |
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mijk
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What happened to Grex's Gopher server?
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Apr 4 12:44 UTC 2017 |
I have been told, Grex had an awesome Gopher server at one time. What happened
to it? I see there is a Gopher client, and it points to quux.org ( think?)
rather than alot pointing to floodgap's gopherhole. It would be nice to have
a Gopher server here, maybe like SDF offering gohper hosting? Een better
though, imo - would be a shared gopher server. A collaborative gopherhole.
Is anybody still interested in gopher here? What do you think of a grex
gopher server?
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| 79 responses total. |
tonster
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response 1 of 79:
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Apr 4 14:08 UTC 2017 |
I see it as one more thing we don't have time to administer myself, and
I'd question if we could even build it at this point, considering the
overall state of the system.
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mijk
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response 2 of 79:
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Apr 4 15:37 UTC 2017 |
Hi tonster,
There seem to be two questions now:
How difficult would it be to administer a gopher server here on grex?
What is the overall state of the system?
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tod
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response 3 of 79:
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Apr 5 03:18 UTC 2017 |
I gave up gopher holes.
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cross
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response 4 of 79:
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Apr 5 14:31 UTC 2017 |
The overall state of the system is bad, frankly. We're many
years behind on upgrading the basic OS and frankly we want
to move to FreeBSD anyway.
But I'm not sure what the appeal of a gopher server would be?
Aside from a certain "retro" thing, Gopher's pretty much gone
by the wayside....
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tod
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response 5 of 79:
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Apr 5 15:59 UTC 2017 |
I'd be more interested in a usenet newsreader like back in tha day
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kentn
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response 6 of 79:
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Apr 6 00:38 UTC 2017 |
/usr/local/bin/slrn
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papa
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response 7 of 79:
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Apr 6 09:27 UTC 2017 |
There is a community of Gopher fans keeping the protocol alive, though it is
admittedly a very small niche. In addition to its retro appeal, Gopher allows
very lightweight clients and servers and appeals to people who think the WWW
was spoiled by embedded graphics. It also serves as a darknet for sharing
files off the Web.
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mijk
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response 8 of 79:
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Apr 6 18:17 UTC 2017 |
Gopher does have much going for it, if people knew about it. It concentrates
your mind on the material you are reading, or searched for; instead of the
fluff, which is alot of hip web design. The web is as much about what it looks
like as what it is; where really content 'should' be king.
I think having another option, other than WWW, for hypertext content on the
internet is a good thing. I can see how the web killed gopher, but i really
think many people are tired of the web when it comes to certain types of
material. Look at me: someone who switched on a computer fro the first time
in 2007 ( i think?), and here i am beating the path less trod (these days).
I am eternally grateful nobody showed me how to use the PC i bought when i
got internet and had to get aquanted with computers; otherwise i would maybe
be stuck in a Micros*ft controlled matrix, where venturing off any well trod
paths is punishable by excommunication.
Anyway: one nice thing would, along with a webpage, to have a gopher page,
and or, a gopher blog. :)
I'm not asking directly for this right now; just thought it a nice idea to
have the topic broached, and wondered how feasable it was for the future.
Gopher hasn't died, it really is still here. (when i get round to setting up
my own gopher server, it would be nice if it could be listed on Grex.org's
much better gopher hub ;)
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kentn
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response 9 of 79:
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Apr 7 00:25 UTC 2017 |
See if you can run it now. I don't know if it will connect to anything
or.
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kentn
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response 10 of 79:
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Apr 7 00:26 UTC 2017 |
not :)
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nydel
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response 11 of 79:
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Apr 20 16:16 UTC 2017 |
i would use a gopherspace here on grex. i'm a big fan and currently am trying
to leave w3/html behind. this includes of course replacing my http home with
a script that simply formats my gopherspace & phlog to the most minimal
hypertext possible. anyway i think the number of us interested in doing such
a thing is growing, especially as the w3c's concern for user rights is
shrinking. see http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw for great example of
how gopher can be visible to w3 users ... i recommend gopher://sdf.org as
a test uri to enter. i think the demand for a non-commercial(izable) protocol
is going to increase as even non-savvy end-users notice their freedoms
dwindling on the w3 specs to come. some speak of potential secure gopher, other
such oddities ... i argue that gopher is perfect as is, and any modifications
that need to be done can be done through the way it's retrieved via w3 (the
protocol that won, for now anyway, it has won and that is that). in the unix
philosophy sense, i speak. gopher is perfect. it does exactly what it is
supposed to do, and no more and no less. i'll note that i'm more interested in
maintaining and cultivating the user base here at grex than i am in
implementing a new protocol instance, but should sensible priorities permit, i
would certainly make very serious use of a grex gopherspace.
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mijk
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response 12 of 79:
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Apr 21 18:33 UTC 2017 |
I have spoken with a few members of Grex.org who are very into gopher. SO ther
is a group of us who might be able to contribute in some way to this.
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