User:Jamesg.blog/Gopher

 Gopher  is a protocol alternative to HTTP which has existed since 1991. Similar to the much younger Gemini protocol, Gopher pages – so called gopher holes – usually don't take a lot of resources to load and to host. While web browsers like Firefox used to support the protocol, nowadays a web proxy or a gopher browser are necessary to view gopher pages. One example for a well-known web browser that still supports the protocol is Lynx.

Gopher uses a relatively simple markup that makes use of the tabulator key. While it does not support as many file formats as modern protocols, some non-canonical types will still work.

Indieweb relevance
While Gopher was initially marketed as a better solution for library database access, the platform was quickly seen as an opportunity for advertisement and commercial use. This was met with the introduction of license fees by the creators, which made the protocol less attractive and ulimately contributed to the takeover by the world wide web.

While gopher is clearly not as popular today as it once was, there is a community of enthusiasts who still use the protocol today. It is praised for its simplicity and the abscense of company pages in comparison to the web. Just like on the web and gemini logs – so called phlogs – are very popular.

web proxies

 * https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/gw
 * http://gopherproxy.net/

starting points

 * web proxy to gopher.floodgap.com
 * web proxy to sdf.org