# SDF Gemini Headline Proposal

This document proposes a convention to increase gemini capsule readability on SDF by asking folks to think about using their main page 'headline' to advertise new content.

What I mean by 'headline' is the first line in your capsule's index.gmi file. Mine's here:
=> gemini://sdf.org/mstewart/index.gmi

When one loads SDF's gemini aggregator, they might see something like the following, depending on their client of course:
> => gemini://sdf.org/alfred/ alfred         Oct-28 10:59     alfred's Gemini Capsule
> => gemini://sdf.org/sufficient/ sufficient     Oct-28 10:28    the ongoing want
> => gemini://sdf.org/bosque/ bosque         Jul-10 18:05     Space Firefly
> => gemini://sdf.org/panicking/ panicking      Oct-27 23:24    My First Page!
> => gemini://sdf.org/rbigelo/ rbigelo        Oct-28 16:20    Plain Text is Beautiful
> => gemini://sdf.org/andrewchiclaes/ andrewchiclaes   Oct-27 14:33    My First Page!
> => gemini://sdf.org/stug/ stug           Oct-26 19:23    _______ __
> => gemini://sdf.org/bottles/ bottles        Oct-22 13:47     Messages in Bottles
> => gemini://sdf.org/mstewart/ mstewart       Oct-26 04:30    New gemlog entry
> => gemini://sdf.org/sinza/ sinza          Oct-26 04:27     Retro Capsule
> => gemini://sdf.org/gef/ gef            Oct-24 17:09     evolution revolution
=> gemini://sdf.org

Your capsule's headline is what gets displayed in the 3rd column, after the date. Folks generally use this for a sort of tagline or motto for their capsule. Occasionally it snags the first line of an ASCII art header or the triple-backtick that opens a preformat block.

That list is sorted (more or less) in order of most recent activity. It's nice to see who has updated things recently. But sometimes when you navigate into a capsule, it isn't super obvious what the new content actually is.

I propose that folks consider using their index page's headline to summarize new content when they add it, that way it's easier to find. Ideally, you could even include a direct link on your second line (which is possibly how you wound up here).

Summarizing what has updated in the headline is a chance to advertise what folks can expect when they click through; it also saves repeat visitors from digging around to spot the new thing.

As an example, at the time of writing this, my capsule showed this way in the aggregator:
> => gemini://sdf.org/mstewart/ mstewart       Oct-26 04:30    New gemlog entry

And the first two lines of my index page looked like this:
> New gemlog entry
> =>gemini://sdf.org/mstewart/glog/2025-10-25.gmi 2025-10-25

You probably saw something different though, because I updated the headline when I uploaded this proposal; I hope the headline change was informative and helpful.

I'm curious how many folks read this; if you have feedback, feel free to send me some mail, or write a follow-up post.

Thanks for reading.