Why there's a point to alternative protocols and spaces

[solderpunk]

Howdy all!

Perhaps the most common criticism I've read of Gemini comes from people
who think defining a new protocol whose capabilities are very closely
matched by a subset of an existing one is a waste of time.  Why build
something from scratch when you can just build webpages which don't use
javascript or iframes etc., and serve them with servers that don't send
cookies and E-tags?

It's a fair enough question on the face of it, and I want our FAQ to
address it.

I think everybody here understands the tremendous difference between
that and what we're trying to do with Gemini, but it's a difficult thing
to boil down to a succinct answer.  I have written up some of my
thoughts in the traditional long form at:

gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/~solderpunk/cornedbeef/why-not-just-use-a-subset-of-http-and-html.gmi

I am keen to hear people's thoughts, both on what I've written and on
the question in general, and receive suggestions on what good responses
are to people who ask this question.

Cheers,
Solderpunk