~hedy https://write.tildeverse.org/hedy/ where my thoughts live, when I write them down Thu, 17 Sep 2026 16:01:33 -0400 First Impressions on The Small(-ish) Internet https://write.tildeverse.org/hedy/first-impressions-on-the-small-ish-internet <![CDATA[As I understand it, the world wide web is broken, heavy, and confusing — at least for me. It is built on top of a protocol called HTTP and it started out with HyperText Markup Language (HTML) documents. Then there was CSS, then JavaScript, then all of the other messy things. !--more-- The small internet is built on different protocols. One of them – Gopher – was quite popular during the 90s but eventually lost the battle to HTTP. Since then it was maintained by a small group of hackers and hobbyists who enjoyed the simplicity and textual Gopher provides. Recently a new protocol named Gemini was collaboratively developed and it aims to be “heavier” than Gopher but “lighter” than the web – although without replacing either. (WIP)]]> As I understand it, the world wide web is broken, heavy, and confusing — at least for me. It is built on top of a protocol called HTTP and it started out with HyperText Markup Language (HTML) documents. Then there was CSS, then JavaScript, then all of the other messy things.

The small internet is built on different protocols. One of them – Gopher – was quite popular during the 90s but eventually lost the battle to HTTP. Since then it was maintained by a small group of hackers and hobbyists who enjoyed the simplicity and textual Gopher provides. Recently a new protocol named Gemini was collaboratively developed and it aims to be “heavier” than Gopher but “lighter” than the web – although without replacing either. (WIP)

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