Proposal about content-size and hash

[Ali Fardan]

On Tue, 3 Nov 2020 13:11:16 +0100
Björn Wärmedal <bjorn.warmedal at gmail.com> wrote:
> I assume the majority of people who suggest a feature want "gemini +
> X", but everyone has their own idea of what X is :) If everyone built
> their own protocol instead, almost all of those would be doomed from
> the get-go. To get traction a potential new protocol needs to be
> appealing to as many as possible -- and the creator needs to *reach
> out* to as many as possible at that!

I agree on the fact the if everyone rolled their own protocol it'll be
a mess, however, the appeal of Gemini would fade away if it starts
growing in terms of features, the way I see to grow the community is
hosting more content in the gemspace and going forward with refining
the spec to a final paper that is more precise and easier for newcomers
to get a grasp on because the protocol has evolved along with the
current spec paper and stuff has been added that wasn't intended to be
there from the beginning.

It would be discouraging for people to have their implementations break
so often because the protocol is never stable and features get
added/removed with stuff changing all the time.

The way I see it, Gemini is complete, the only way going forward is
tidying up the spec and growing the gemspace with more content, and in
the meantime, Gemini implementations will mature and become more
appealing for newcomers.

> Well, if all I want is gemini + X, then using protocol Y with its
> bloat of features I *don't* need is less tempting than sending a
> feature proposal to the gemini ML. And again, that's a good thing! It
> means people are engaging and shaping the trajectory of their own
> internet future. A rejected proposal is a hundred times better than
> one that was never discussed for fear of ridicule or social
> repercussions. The community is alive and vibrant :D

You wouldn't want to add revision control to Gemini, that's what Git is
for, just like you wouldn't add remote shell to Gemini because that's
what SSH is for, this should apply to everything, use the right tool
for the right task.