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         Technology/Gopher, (sdf.org), 11/06/2018
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I enjoy having multiple gopher holes. Why have just one? It 
provides a bit of segmentation in what I write about, and I 
like that. If anyone doesn't like it, I'm sorry. I haven't 
gotten any feedback on it, so I have to believe no one cares 
too much.

Another great thing about multiple gopher holes is the 
opportunity to support multiple public access systems. These 
servers probably won't last forever if no one is using them. 
The admins won't bother (silenceisdefeat, for example.)

There are down sides of course... like, what do you do when 
one of your gopher providers seems to be going belly-up? And 
what if it's a main gopher hole for you, with plenty of your 
content on it?

Grex, I'm looking at you.

I started using grex around the same time I started using 
SDF, a couple years ago I think it was (2 or 3 or 
thereabouts, I'd have to look.) It was then, and is now, a 
struggling public access unix system. I've seen a couple new 
users sign up since I got there, but not a lot. I've seen a 
bit of activity in the bbs and chat, but again, not a lot. 
For whatever reason, people just aren't using what's there.

One of the best things-in my opinion- that grex did recently 
was to add gopher hosting. I don't have access to the logs, 
but my guess is that the gopher side of things gets more 
action than the html side of things, the bbs side of things, 
and the chat side of things combined. It's a hunch.

For a while, everything was wonderful. But then, the great 
slowdown of 2018 struck. And stuck. It seems like Grex can't 
process gopher requests in anything akin to a timely manner 
lately; all of my clients timeout. Sometimes it only affects 
the main gopher page, other times it affects the whole 
server. Logging in can be impossible or barely possible. 
Using the system if you do login is sluggish.

I have written the admin a tiny bit, but thinking on it, I 
could try a little harder on that side of things. Cross has 
been quite nice and very responsive. I should probably reach 
out.

Regardless of my civic duty, the question is in my mind: 
what if grex dies? It's a possibility, certainly. I do have 
a backup, but I'm not looking forward to re-homing the 
content. And, do I wait, or do I make a move before I have 
to? The deep, meaningful questions in life...

This reminds me of something that has been discussed 
elsewhere: the ephemeral nature of things, especially 
esoteric old technological things. The point is to enjoy 
them while they last, not to worry about when they'll be 
gone. Grex is here today; I can login, use party, check the 
bbs, and maybe write a thing or two there. That's good 
enough for me- I'm not going to think about it any more 
until it stops responding indefinitely.

***

I'm also happy to report that I logged into the CDC6500 
today. Now there is a system that I'm simply pleased to use 
whenever it is powered up, without any real concern for how 
long it lasts. It's here today, and that's good enough.