# burrowing: From text-only to gopher-only

_Published: November 15, 2021_

## Description

This past month, I've spent a lot of time learning about gopher.
It's truly a fascinating alternative to the world wide web, not
just in the content found there but also in terms of the protocol
itself.

As of this writing, I've decided to deprecate text.alexkarle.com
in favor of serving that content (and more!) over gopher instead,
exclusively.

## Implications

This shouldn't have much impact on this blog.  After all,
text.alexkarle.com was [an experiment](/blog/text-only.html) to begin
with!  I'll still keep publishing semi-regularly here, I just
don't plan on maintaining a text dump via HTTP.

I will, however, start publishing gopher-only content.  There's two
main reasons for this:

1. I want to see more activity on gopher
2. Gopher is easier to publish on

Admittedly, number 2 is my own doing.  I
[moved this blog to `mdoc(7)`](/blog/my-old-man.html) willingly to
learn the language.  I've found that it slows my raw output,
which, while fine for longer form pieces, is a pain for
shorter-form thoughts.  No regrets (I learned a ton!), but
shorter-form thoughts do much better in plaintext!

The first reason is a theme for this blog: be the change you want
to see.  I would love to see more content on gopher, so I'm taking
the plunge.

## The Pitch

So, why gopher?  Probably the biggest reason to explore gopher is
the content.  It's a parallel network totally untouched by
commercial interests.  You won't see a single ad.

The second reason to try gopher lies in the protocol itself--gopher
has a standardized menu interface, and individual gopherholes
cannot change the way you interact with them beyond the standard.
In a world where it seems every bit of the web's UI has been
rewritten in JavaScript (looking at you, <div>'s that should be
<button>'s), it's wildly refreshing to just have a predictable
menu.

So, gopher separates the interaction (menus) from the content (can
be anything, but is usually plaintext).  I think this is a cool
design choice because it emphasizes what the gopher protocol is
really about: fetching documents.

Ultimately, it's hard to describe and much better experienced.
For a quick dip, try out a proxy like [https://gopherproxy.net].
For client recommendations, I'd check out
[`lynx(1)`](https://lynx.invisible-island.net/),
[`sacc(1)`](https://git.fifth.space/sacc), or
[`bombadillo(1)`](https://bombadillo.colorfield.space/).
Bombadillo has gemini support too, gemini being another
alternative internet protocol worth checking out. I'll likely put
my stuff up there too, if time allows.

Not sure where to start in your client? Go to [gopher://alexkarle.com]
of course! :)

## See Also

- [RFC 1436 (Gopher)](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc1436)
- [http://gopherproject.org]
- [Gemini official site](https://gemini.circumlunar.space)

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