Bye, Gemini

Aug 5th, 2023
by makeworld

The Gemini protocol was a big part of my COVID-19 lockdown experience. Discovering this underground, small protocol, having long discussions on the mailing list, and most importantly for me, developing software. My terminal Gemini browser, Amfora, was my first public FOSS project, something actually intended for a wider audience to use. It succeeded beyond my expectations (but within my hopes), and I’m proud to say it now has thousands of downloads.

In the early days of Gemini, I had a lot of fun reading posts as they emerged from various gemlogs, responses to those posts, and writing my own posts. It felt new and fresh and fun, an exciting secret place full of potential. Eventually, as the quarantine stage of the pandemic winded down and my life shifted, things fell into a more natural pace for me, casually checking in with gemlog updates and reading people’s posts every so often. Over time, the novelty of the protocol wore off, which is perfectly normal. When I wasn’t actually developing code, what I was left with was simply the experience of Gemini (and my browser) as it actually was, without added feelings around meta topics like protocol specifications.

As much as I want to like and use Gemini, in practice I simply don’t. Over the months (and now years!), it just doesn’t keep me coming back for more. I first mentioned this feeling all the way back in May 2021, but I’ve wrestled with writing this blog post because I couldn’t pin down the reasons. Why don’t I use it? Am I too warped by modern convenience to be able to enjoy a slow Internet?

The reason

After a lot of thinking, I’ve realized there is one main reason I don’t keep coming back to Gemini: it offers no advantage over how I already use the Web.

In practice, the Web already has all the Gemini content I’m interested in from various people, and then of course everything else. Having everything in one place (whether my web browser or feed reader) makes for a much nicer experience.

Gemini is a reaction to bloated modern websites, but in fact I don’t actually visit that many gross websites like that. When I do, my ad blocker and paywall bypasser usually make them decent again. Otherwise, I spend the majority of my non-work Internet time on lightweight sites like my feed reader and Hacker News, and some time on sites that Gemini can’t emulate: YouTube, Reddit, Discord. The reality is that Gemini just wouldn’t actually improve this experience for me.

Gemini also has downsides. I enjoy being able to express a bit of personality on my website through CSS, which is just not possible with Gemini. And I’m come to realize I really do appreciate the unique design of different people’s websites as well. If someone’s design is unbearable, using my feed reader or Firefox’s reader view gives me the choice not to experience it, but with Gemini I don’t have the choice at all.

Finally, a more personal issue is that reading long form text in monospace really sucks, and of course that’s all Amfora can do, operating in the terminal. This makes developing and testing my browser easy, but makes actually using it for reading gemlog posts not ideal — for me anyway. Long reading on my computer is already annoying for me, and this doesn’t help.

The future of my Gemini software

So, what does this mean for my software repos that deal with Gemini? Mostly I will be making official what has been obvious for some time: active development is not happening. Here is the rundown:

Amfora: maintenance mode. When possible, I’ll make/merge bug fixes, and maybe slowly merge feature PRs by others.
md2gemini: archived. It’s always been a pile of hacks, and now I’m not that invested in fixing it.
go-gemini: maintenance mode. Bug and spec fixes only. The code should be pretty simple to continue maintaining in case anyone is using it.
gemget: maintenance mode. Being able to simply download Gemini content will still occasionally be useful to me.
gemlikes: archived. It’s always been a toy, and now will no longer see any further development.
go-gemini-socks5: maintenance mode. I somehow don’t expect this single file will need many changes.

The future of my capsule

gemini://makeworld.space will remain online for the foreseeable future, but I will no longer be syndicating my blog posts or site updates there. I will leave existing gemlog posts at least, but other pages that would require updating may be removed.

Goodbye Gemini! I hope you continue to exist for those who want it, and to remind people that Web alternatives are possible.