Should Gemini clients alert users upon redirect?

[Luke Emmet]

On 18-Sep-2020 11:20, Leo wrote:
> The client can do whatever it wants, and people can link to you in 
> arbitrary ways.
>
>> I could send along a patch to change the default
>
> While it might be more ergonomic to only alert the user if the 
> redirect is changing origin,
> there is nothing inherently wrong with alerting for every redirect. 
> Even if you send a patch to
> fix (a non-broken) default for that client, there is no guarantee that 
> people don't change the
> default or simply use different clients.
>
>> Should I be sending a polite change request to the author of the capsule
>
> You can email the capsule author, but from their perspective, you are 
> making a needless change to a
> working URL. The correct way to handle this situation is to either 
> keep redirecting and stop caring
> about how different clients handle it, or to stop redirecting and give 
> a not found error and le
> people link you correctly.
>
I largely agree. Whilst Gemini clearly has some differences from the web 
in this regard, for me this is an area of functionality where we should 
do by and large the same as the web. Both are path and text based 
hypertext systems and authors expectations will be already established.

Personally I think there is no reason for a client to request permission 
for a redirect to another page on the same server.

If the main concern is a "silent" traversal from a known location to an 
unknown one, a better fix is for the client to indicate the traversal, 
but not require an action from the user

In my own client GemiNaut it is obvious when you traverse from one 
domain to another as the theme changes, so there is never a case that 
the user is silently and unknowably redirected. Other clients without 
such a clear visual distinction between domains might think a user 
interaction is sensible. However, bear in mind that from a UI design 
point of view, interrupting the user to require them to click a button 
or press "OK" (or equivalent) is generally a sort of last resort to be 
avoided, because it brings them back into focus of the software tool, 
rather than focussing on their task at hand or their train of thought.

I don't think Gemini clients ought to always interrupt the user upon a 
server request. As usual with these things, it is finding a balance 
between visibility of system action, security considerations, usability 
and personal preference.

Best wishes

  - Luke