Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 13:20:21 -0500
To: gopher@complete.org
Subject: [gopher] Where are we going?
Message-ID: <20030618182021.GA20733@pongonova.net>
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From: Brian <brian-keyword-gopher.6f04ff@pongonova.net>
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All--

I've been following this list for quite a while, having set up a
gopher server and tweaking on it as time permits.  For me, it's a
window into a much simpler and efficient past.  I remember searching
gopher sites in the late 80's, and actually finding useful info (as
opposed to the crap spewed out by most so-called search engines today).

But the question that's been dogging me is:  Where are we going with
this?  Is the intent to simply keep alive a little piece of history
for nostalgic purposes?  Are we lying-in-wait, much like the OpenNIC
project of which I'm a part, waiting to step in and save the day when
the weight of all the cruft holding up the DNS infrastructure
caves in on itself?  We gopher step in to save the day when people
become so jaded with the eye candy that passes for the Internet cry
out for real information?

Maybe there's not an end goal in sight, which is OK too.  I keep an
old Timex-Sinclair and Commodore 128 (both working) in the garage,
simply because I can.  Will I ever be able to do my taxes on either?
Probably not, nor would I want to.  They'll sit there and run until
they die, I suppose, at which point I'll put them back on the shelf
to let the kids discover them when *I* die.  Will the same be done with
veronica-2, pygopher, and the rest of the "new breed" of gopher
clients/servers?  Or are there grander visions out there?

  --Brian