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Why did I work on gemini mention

Posted on 2022-02-28

After publishing yesterday an idea of gemini mention kind of "standard" and a couple of implementations, I realized I haven't explained why I decided to "work" on this proposal.

I enjoyed reading @paulsnar¹'s, @skyjake²'s and @szczezuja³'s gemlog entries following yesterday's post.

Even if @skyjake and @szczezuja aren't enthusiast about the idea, I like open discussions and constructive feedback!

@Paulsnar's post is very much aligned with my thinking, but reading it made me realize I "dropped" this post without really highlighting the reason why.

Yes I indicated that I believe this is a missing piece in the gemini space because we sometimes respond (more or less) to each other on specific topics.

The main reason I "jumped" into this "issue" can be reduced to one sentence: I did it for me :)

Because I feel like it is painful to go and search for someone email on a capsule, or find a pseudo in an IRC channel. Many capsules don't show any contact info at all. Maybe some don't want to be contacted, maybe some other prefer not to put these type of data online and would prefer a more "discreet" type of solution.

Yesterday again I wanted to reach out to a fellow geminauts but couldn't find any details (so ended up writing a tinylog entry as the question was about tinylog and gtl).

Anyway, I was facing a double issue:

• How to contact an author about his post
• How to simplify the way a fellow geminaut could reach out to me after writing a response to my post.

On the second point, I do provide contact info on my capsule homepage so that could be enough.

But at the same time I wanted to have a better way that didn't involve opening an email software (even though I use neomutt which is pretty light :)).

"Mailto" could be a middle ground. They open your email client with information pre filled. But they still requires that you write an email to share your link. Maybe you don't want to share your email address? Even if you do, simply pasting a link within query box seems almost easier, and you don't need to actually write anything more than the response entry. And you don't leave your gemini browser.

It may seems "bold" to arrive directly with an "RFC for gemini mention", but if that's the case it wasn't the intend.

I started thinking about building just a custom thing for me at first. But when reading other entries about "mentions" or alike after some research, I thought that if I were to do something for me, I might as well find a reusable solution that fits as much as possible the gemini spirit, and of course stay in the rules of the gemini protocol and gemtext specifications.

My engineer brain decided to work on a reusable solution and I thought the best way for other to embrace was to release some software with it to simplify life of other. And I enjoy writing code too :p

I never thought it would be used by all in the gemini space :] (exactly like tinylog, we are a small community, but I enjoy it nevertheless!).

I disagree with @Skyjake view on gemlog interaction:

Gemlogs are not meant for interaction, per se. It's a bit like having a discussion with someone by publishing open letters in a newspaper. It's a many-to-many, open ended forum.

Well, as a French person I love to argue, so I'm going to say that his post is still some kind of response to mine :D (and this one to his?). So we are interacting :). And, in my personal opinion (not worth much, I agree), it is a nice way to communicate.

Not one to one interaction per say, but community wide. Opening topics for the overall community to anyone who wants to participate.

Yes, an "open response", but still a new response in a discussion. And like any discussions we can agree or disagree.

And I think it is healthy!

It would be very boring if we always agree on everything with each other… I enjoy being able to publicly discuss ideas (a bit like discussion on gitlab about the protocol, but for anything really).

It doesn't prevent direct conversations either. I have been discussing over emails with a few geminauts over the past weeks on this or other subjects anyway.

No right or wrong here, just a simple difference of opinion though :).

Gemlog discussions have a certain stress-free nature. You can just make a post and not worry about any replies, or deal with them at your leisure after a week or a month.

100%! And if you don't care about replies, do not participate to the gemini mention and don't provide the endpoint. That's easy (:

Same as any other "thing" available in the gemini space, it is optional and only capsule owner decide what they want to do. But if you anyone is interested, he doesn't have to reinvent the wheel.

I don't like favicon, comments or likes, so I just don't add these capabilities to my capsule. Same goes for me, I do expect some/most people being against the tinylogs format or the gemini mention standard.

They are (relatively) complex technical solutions that are difficult to apply universally to everyone, and require (relatively) costly commitment from both gemlog authors and readers.

While a lot less important, I admit this comment made me a bit smile, considering the number of line of codes needed in aggregators / browsers / search engine compared with the small bash script or even ggm. GTL is actually a lot more complex than a gemini mention tool^^.

As a conclusion, I hope that the intent of this message will not be interpreted the wrong way:

I enjoy open discussions and respect everyone's opinion and welcome negative and constructive criticism!

It would be very hypocrite of me to work on a "I want to read your responses" solution and then refuse harsh but constructive comments!

For what it's worth, I enjoy the "solutioning" and "standardization" exercise, even if it stays just that I had my fun :).

Stay safe fellow geminauts (:

PS: If you want to notify me a response, you can do it with the link below. Or send me an email (contact on the homepage) or make sure your post hit Antenna / Cosmos, I'm still a huge fan and user of these tools :).

=> RE: [1]: But Why Though? - by Paunstar | RE: [2]: RE: Gemlog Responses - by Skyake | RE: [3]: RE: Have one's cake and eat it - by Szczezuja

=> /gemlog/

=> Send me a gemini mention | send me an email!