[krapp]

Didn't the creator of the protocol go on a rant when someone made a browser for Gemini that included a favicon?

I can't imagine the backlash if someone tried to normalize Markdown. Isn't the entire point of Gemini that it can never be extended or expanded upon?

Maybe it would be better to create an entirely different protocol/alt web around Markdown that didn't risk running afoul of Gemini's philosophical restrictions?

[gzread]

Yeah, instead someone makes a new and incompatible protocol whenever they want to change it.

> The SmolNet consists of content available through alternative protocols outside the web such as gemini:// gopher:// Gopher+ gophers:// finger:// spartan:// text:// SuperText nex:// scorpion:// mercury:// titan:// guppy:// scroll:// molerat:// terse:// fsp://. There is a summary of the main SmolNet protocols.

- https://wiki.archiveteam.org/index.php/SmolNet

[krapp]

Molerat at least seems to use Markdown but many do seem to be "Gemini but X." I wonder how much use any of those get?

[mattlondon]

I think a "markdown-web" that uses some of the Gemini approaches for privacy and auth/identity etc would be pretty nice.

Of course, as others have said, we could just use HTML without JavaScript or cookies and we'd be a lot of the way there with 95% less effort but hey in the future we'll probably just query an AI rather than load a web page ourselves.

[krapp]

Given how many people on HN say they like Gemini in principle but wish it weren't so restrictive, some people would use it. All of those people might just be that cross section of HN users, however.