*** Copied from my WWW Blog as the final thing posted there **


=== So long and see you on Gopher ===


I started this WWW Blog recently to keep track of my rekindled
interest in Amateur Radio.

I've also, for the last year or so, been using Gopher for posting
"blog-like" things on similar topics.

I can't duplicate everything on both platforms, and I prefer Gopher
to the WWW nowadays. The web is largely broken and I feel that by
adding more content all I'm doing is feeding the LLM/AI monster and
not really adding anything of interest to anyone else.

On Gopher there is a smaller audience, but those people are much
more involved with what they read and discover while wandering
around gopher space. That's no longer true of the WWW. It's no
longer a special place where people hang-out and share information.

This will be my final WWW Blog post.

Find me on Gopher at gopher://g4slv.cloud

There are lots of gopher clients still available for *NIX systems:

  * gopher (the University of Michigan's original client)
  * bombadillo 
  * sacc 
  * vf1 https://git.sr.ht/~solderpunk/VF-1 
  * lynx (the text-mode web browser handled gopher natively and is
    perhaps the best for newbies) 
  * phetch https://github.com/xvxx/phetch/releases 
  * gopherus 
  * ncgopher

There are gopher clients for lots of old computer platforms (amiga
etc.) and I'm sure there are some for Windows and DOS

There are resources to learn about gopher, a place to start is
floodgap

There is a gopher-web proxy at floodgap.com

http://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw? 

with lots of information, or you can go there directly with a
gopher client gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/ and there's a Firefox
plugin called Overbite

Interaction with gopher users is done mostly by email, not as
"likes" and "comments" on their own site - although a few people
operate a "guestbook" (gopher servers can use cgi scripts to give
some dynamic functionality). 

Comments on phlog posts are often made by posting your own phlog
post referencing the one you're commenting on... and perhaps
emailing the person to let them know you've posted your own
thoughts on their subject. 

This process is inherently slow, and thoughtful, which is the
benefit and attraction. 

You don't scattergun-spray "Likes and comments" all over the
WWW.... you read, consider, compose, communicate in a more gentle
timeframe, and with more humanity.

Bye BYE www!

j