#smolinternet — Public Fediverse posts

🚨 Attention Gemini, Gopher, & Finger fans —

Adële ( @adele ) has something to show you:

https://smolweb.org/

Adële joins others who argue that — we shouldn't throw out all of the HTML "baby" with the broken-web "bath water" — but that instead —

We should use a restricted subset of HTML — and in particular XHTML.

https://mastodon.tetaneutral.net/@adele/110984755396680624

#smolWeb #smallWeb #smolNet #smallNet #smolInternet #smallInternet #WorldWideWeb #xhtml #gemini #geminiProtocol #gemtext #gopher #finger #fingerProtocol

@pmevzek

Using a DNS SRV record instead of a DNS TXT record —

To make it so you can change the TCP-port and host of a finger-protocol request —

Seems like a reasonable modification to what I was proposing.

( #dns #dnsTxt )

( #finger #fingerHole #fingerProtocol #fingerverse )

( #smallInternet #smallNet #smallWeb )

( #smolInternet #smolNet #smolWeb )

1/

The finger-protocol could make use of DNS TXT records.

You could use it to change the TCP-port connected to for a finger-request.

You could use it to change the host connected to for a finger-request.

This has a lot of potential!

🧵

( #dns #dnsTxt )

( #finger #fingerHole #fingerProtocol #fingerverse )

( #smallInternet #smallNet #smallWeb )

( #smolInternet #smolNet #smolWeb )

@orangeacme

Some other relevant tags for your thread:

https://fosstodon.org/@orangeacme/109483350342825311

#finger #fingerHole #fingerProtocol #fingerverse

#smallInternet #smallNet #smallWeb

#smolInternet #smolNet #smolWeb

You could use #finger as a mirror & a CDN —

The type of #fingerProtocol request many are used to —

finger [email protected]

I.e., ask "example.com" for joeblow's content.

But you could request someone else's from a different server with:

finger [email protected]@changelog.ca

I.e., ask "changelog.ca" for the content for "joeblow" from "example.com".

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( #fingerHole #fingerverse )

( #smallInternet #smallNet #smallWeb )

( #smolInternet #smolNet #smolWeb )

https://mastodon.social/@reiver/108253652852332241

4/

I heavily used #finger back in the 1990s.

People are starting to use finger again!

The new finger community should be open to creating new #fingerProtocol ‘switches’.

For example “/PULL”, “/PUSH”, “/BANANA”, etc.

You could even make ‘switches’ that look like file & directory paths — “/path/to/a/file.ext”.

(Finger ‘switches’ are recognized by starting with a slash (“/”).)

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( #fingerHole #fingerverse )

( #smallInternet #smallNet #smallWeb )

( #smolInternet #smolNet #smolWeb )

3/

RFC-742 & RFC-1288 were always about just documenting what existing software was already doing.

I.e., the people who created the #fingerProtocol clients, servers, and other software (as well as the people who decided to use it) lead — and creating an updated specification comes later.

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( #finger #fingerHole #fingerverse )

( #smallInternet #smallNet #smallWeb )

( #smolInternet #smolNet #smolWeb )

2/

Two specifications were created for the #fingerProtocol:

• #IETF #RFC742 (published in 1977)
• #IETF #RFC1288 (published in 1991)

Neither of them were about creating the finger-protocol.

The finger-protocol existed and was evolving AT LEAST 6 YEARS BEFORE the IETF RFC-742 specification was written!

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( #finger #fingerHole #fingerverse )

( #smallInternet #smallNet #smallWeb )

( #smolInternet #smolNet #smolWeb )

1/

One way the #fingerProtocol could be extended —

Creating new #finger ‘switches’ —

(I.e., creating new finger-protocol request ‘switches’, in addition to the “/W” (i.e., ‘whois’) switch — )

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( #fingerHole #fingerverse )

( #smallInternet #smallNet #smallWeb )

( #smolInternet #smolNet #smolWeb )

Awesome Finger

A collection of awesome things regarding the finger-protocol ecosystem.

https://github.com/reiver/awesome-finger

( #finger #fingerHole #fingerProtocol #fingerverse )

( #smallInternet #smallNet #smallWeb )

( #smolInternet #smolNet #smolWeb )

( #awesomeList #awesomeLists )