69 lines
7.9 KiB
Markdown
69 lines
7.9 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Exploring the AlterNet
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subtitle: The Web sucks. Long live the Web!
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date: 2021-03-24
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tags:
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- gemini
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categories:
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- webdesign
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---
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Web 2.0 is a monstrosity that never should have been evolved the way it did. It is now officially impossible to develop a new web browser, and Google's [dangerously massively-used](https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share) Chrome browser keeps on kicking people in the nuts by [removing privacy-focused extensions](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-removes-privacy-focused-clearurls-chrome-extension/) from the Chrome Web Store - because it's "not in line with their business model". Did you know the W3C specification set is [114 million words long](https://drewdevault.com/2020/03/18/Reckless-limitless-scope.html)? That's simply insane.
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Lately, I've been implementing the [Webmention](/post/2021/03/the-indieweb-mixed-bag/) and Pingback W3C protocols in [my jamstack-augmented microservice](https://github.com/wgroeneveld/serve-my-jams), and I've come to realize that, although Webmention is the post-modernistic hailed and IndieWeb-backed successor to Pingbacks, they technically both suffer form the same problems. I honestly do _not_ see any real difference between `POST`-ing an encoded form or an XML-formatted message. The specs are full of ambiguities that leave the door wide open to (1) interpretation and (2) a proliferation of wildly diverging implementations.
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Don't get me wrong, I love JavaScript. I used to be that guy that constantly yells "check it out, `const()={await...]`!" But the more I tried implementing something inherently _simple_, the more I realized how many different ways the same problem can be tackled in just one language. And then I used `.replaceAll()` in an older version of Node. Many programming languages evolve by borrowing ideas from each other, but really, why would JS need classes? [As Rob Pike argues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFejpH_tAHM&t=91s), keeping things simple in a language can be quite complex. I hope Go will keep it together.
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First, there was CSS. Then CSS2. Then things got complicated, and people started using Bootstrap. Next, Font Awesome. Now, the consensus is to ditch that in favor for `<svg/>`. Then, flexbox. Material stuff. CSS3. Scratch that, use SASS instead! Hey, what's [Tailwind CSS](https://tailwindcss.com/)? The fact that these frameworks evolve more rapidly than I can think might be an indicator of something...[^old]
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[^old]: That I'm getting "too old for this shit"?
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According to the HTTP Archive, the average size of a webpage [has gone up to 2038 KB](https://httparchive.org/reports/state-of-the-web#bytesTotal). Try opening up any news site, blockers on (Firefox' Enhanced Tracking Protection, uBlock Origin), and count how many things get blocked on average. It's simply _disgusting_. Some more nauseating trends:
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- Corporate blogs full of nonsensical bullshit. Come work for us!
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- Like? Share? Plus? Click here! CLICK, DAMN IT!
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- Cookies? No? Well then our site won't work. Sorry.
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- Hey, fill in your e-mail address, we have a mailing list! No spam! Pinkie swear.
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- You sure about the cookies? No?
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- Cookies? Can't save, sorry, that's broken. It's a feature!
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- Infinite scrolls make my head hurt.
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- Your browser is not supported. Download Google Chrome here!
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- Click me! `https://www.amazon.com/dp/exampleProduct/ref=sxin_0_pb?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&keywords=tea&pd_rd_i=exampleProduct&pd_rd_r=8d39e4cd-1e4f-43db-b6e7-72e969a84aa5&pd_rd_w=1pcKM&pd_rd_wg=hYrNl&pf_rd_p=50bbfd25-5ef7-41a2-68d6-74d854b30e30&pf_rd_r=0GMWD0YYKA7XFGX55ADP&qid=1517757263&rnid=2914120011` No? Oh sorry, I meant `https://www.amazon.com/dp/exampleProduct`! Thanks for your data, though[^data]!
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[^data]: The [ClearURLs plugin](https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon) - where I got the example URL from - can take care of this for you. But the point is that these things should not be needed!
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## Back to the 90s Web, then.
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As Max [likes to call it](https://mxb.dev/blog/the-return-of-the-90s-web/): things come around full circle. I don't see this happening very soon for the mainstream web, but yes, there has been a movement. Leaner blogs, the "host it yourself" approach, the blogroll comeback page, and even [guestbooks](https://kevq.uk/guestbook/). Oh, and MySpace is back, in the form of SpaceHey. Thanks, [Garrett Brown](https://blog.spacehey.com/entry?id=12111)!
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Then there's the ActivityPub protocol - an even more complicated set of agreements coded in a bunch of REST services. It gave birth to Mastodon (where I learned a lot about these efforts, thanks!), [Pixelfed](https://pixelfed.org) as a federated alternative to Instagram, and they're working on [BookWyrm](https://www.bookwyrm.social/), a social reading and reviewing platform on the same protocol that hopefully proves to be more interesting than the now ad-ridden Goodreads.
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I've joined [The 512KB Club](https://512kb.club/), averaging out at `248.4 KB` for an article. That'll teach them! We could go back in time and look at my awesome [1998 webpage](/museum/1998/) that includes vibrant `.gif` images and of course `<marquee/>` tags. Silly as it is, I still like that: it's simple. Yes, applets existed, but besides that, there wasn't much to it - yet. My minimalistic blog now could be considered avant-garde while I wish it was mainstream.
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A few other outstanding initiatives are taking ground, such as [the Small Web](https://ar.al/2020/08/07/what-is-the-small-web/). Even if [Google tried](https://moralvolcano.wordpress.com/2014/01/17/google-leads-a-covert-war-against-rss-anonymity-on-the-web/), RSS is still not dead, and it allows me to read what I want in the same simplified layout. And then there are [tilde.town](http://tilde.town/)-alike initiatives: shared computers one can `ssh` into and leave messages - build a community. Sadly, the community will be mostly limited to Linux geeks. Of course [Bulletin Board Systems still exist](https://bytecellar.com/bbsing/) and that's fun too. But one thing does stand out even more.
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## Revolutionize Internet Browsing
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Abandon the http protocol entirely. That is [Project Gemini's plan](https://thenewstack.io/souped-up-gopher-project-geminis-plan-to-revolutionize-internet-browsing/) to revolutionize internet browsing. A `gemini://` website-uhm, "capsule" - sorry, is a _very simple_ page that only allows plain text and basic linking. That's it. A sample source page looks like this:
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```
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# Welcome!
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That's right. Oh, inline links do not work.
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But hey, that's life.
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=> https://brainbaking.com my site
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## Subsection
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Neat!
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```
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No italics/bold, no scripting (well... there's the return of the `cgi-bin` dir), and a very simple way to parse and render the page. This makes creating your own Gemini client and server almost as easy as baking bread. [There's already a lot of them](https://github.com/kr1sp1n/awesome-gemini) in many different programming languages. I honestly would have preferred a unified Markdown syntax instead of yet another derivative, but hey. Required TLS certificates for static pages is another head scratcher.
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If you're keen to check it out, there are [Gemini proxy webpages](https://proxy.vulpes.one/gemini/gemini.circumlunar.space/) on http that render a Gemini capsule. [Lagrange](https://github.com/skyjake/lagrange) is my user friendly Gemini client of choice. I've gone ahead and registered `wouter.gr` - who knows in the coming weeks I'll host a capsule myself.
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I must admit I'm very intrigued by these initiatives, but this does not fix the issue at hand. It's still a very esoteric platform that started in 2019. Http will never simply vanish - unless Google says so. Searching capabilities are still a bit shaky too. And the biggest problem is: writing on gemini means writing for virtually nobody. Drew fixed this by letting Hugo spit out a gemini-compatible `.gmi` file, stripping out unsupported markup. If you're interested, read more at `gemini://drewdevault.com/2020/09/27/Gemini-and-Hugo.gmi`.
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You'll have to figure out for yourself how to actually get there!
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