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>it certainly does not justify completely replacing existing infrastructure and standards that humans have mutually agreed upon. It does, it makes sense. These standards led us to everything that has ruined the old web, it led us to corporate controlled Internet where few major websites aggregate 80% of the content. It led us to scroll-jacking, bot-driven, located behind firewalls and captchas websites where genuine users can't even log in or post anything.
It is why we have to use browsers that are more complex than entire operating systems just to support everything that can be done over HTTP. It led us to monopolies on web browsing - how many pages of web standards you have to implement and comply with if you want to make your own browser, just to visit google dot com? And at any time and moment all your efforts can be interrupted by security researchers who would tell you that your browser is insecure and now you have to comply with hundreds of pages of security standards as well, all because of how much can be done over HTTP. You can't even host a simple website over just HTTP without somebody telling you that you have to use HTTPS, even if you don't need it, because why not? You'll have the green icon! And because of such monopolies, most websites also turned into "shells" that try to ruin your experience as much as possible so you go and download their app where they have more control without being restricted by browsers. And this, in turn, led most people going off the general web and staying inside their apps. Sure, you can make your app that throws away most of HTTP-based bloat, but then someone forks and makes it support some of the bloat because they like it that way, and then someone else adds a bit more, and we are back at it again. You can't just "go back" and strip everything from HTTP, entire thing has to be done in entirely different way where there is no possibility of repeating history, because there is no other road history of HTTP can walk by. |
That’s the entire contention, though. I don’t think the standards really had anything to do with it.
The only thing that even comes close is maybe DNS, since it ties web pages to specific organizations, so a page only continues to exist as long as an unbroken chain of custody keeps it there. But Gemini doesn’t even address that (ask IPFS and FreeNet how it’s going).
But mostly, browser vendors created the standards. And most of the current browser vendors became dominant browser vendors by using some other business to gain an edge in the market: Google used their ad business, sure, but before them it was Microsoft using their operating system to push their browser on people, and they largely just ignored the standards.
> entire thing has to be done in entirely different way where there is no possibility of repeating history
But does Gemini actually do that? What stops your client from making ad-hoc extensions to gemtext?
No amount of writing, or lack thereof, can stop evil Gemini browser vendors from just ignoring what the text says. You need something else to make sure that power players don’t just ignore the rules you set out.