hello, midnight

What a cozy little pub. Hey ~bartender, a whiskey - neat - if you please? :)

I am glad I found this spot, this comfortable corner of the interwebs, what appears to be something made for me and those like me, those who eschew the bloated, ad-ridden websites and "social" networks of today, algorithm-driven feeds of those looking for that quick dopamine hit of attention, just one more "like!" Just one more virtual thumbs-up. Just one more meaningless interaction. Let me post just one more selfie - someone will notice me.

No, I have longed for the internet days of yore for a long time. All the way from bulletin-board systems, to personal webpages, forums, and IRC - all where anonymous users talked about their interests and obsessions until they finally checked their clock and realized "Oops, I've stayed up till 6am again!"

But you didn't care. You were in your element. Your community. That place - whatever it was - full of people just like you. They shared the same interests. They shared information and learned from each other. They shared software they had written with each other, and talked about whatever they were up to without worrying about catching the attention of the Almighty Algorithm or some ad sponsorship.

These interactions had meaning. They had personality. The folks you conversed with felt real, even if you never knew their real name. On today's corporate-owned major sites, nothing feels real. It's all artificial, because everyone is vying for attention - the real modern currency. None of them want to be real, they only want to be the next big "influencer", whatever that word means.

Thankfully, even in this attention-fueled hellscape that is the modern Web, there are these refuges on other corners of the internet. The "smallweb", as we call it - those of us with our own personal sites, wikis, digital gardens. Beautiful places to explore in the Geminispace. Places like this cozy pub.

The web of yore isn't dead, it's just shifted, and if you know where to find it, you will find that same old sense of fulfillment. You'll keep learning new things from people you never knew existed, people just like you.

As for me? I'm just a simple hermit from the woods with a love of FOSS and minimalism. Thanks for letting me have a seat at the bar. I look forward to having a drink here for a long time to come.

softwarepagan

I definitely feel you, though I do think things peaked in the late 2000s where you could indeed still share a selfie but in a less exploitative and corporate environment (and then hop onto a forum that was virtually anonymous - really the best of both worlds).

I took a look at your little profile and it seems we have many interests in common! I am also interested in permaculture and homesteading, FOSS, retrocomputing etc.

Feel free to join us over in the Matrix room as well at #midnightpub:matrix.org.

Welcome to the Pub!

rav3ndust

You're right on the money there - I can remember hopping on my old myspace page for awhile and talking to some IRL friends there, and then jumping right over to various forums of varying interests to discuss other things like music, gaming, and computing.

It's always great chatting with new people who share some interests! each of those things are definitely important to me, my wife and I are working on building up our own homestead out here, and we are both working on some FOSS projects of our own together. Software in particular has been one of those things that has been a constant in my life and I always love building out new things and contributing to others.

Thanks for the invite! Looking forward to the conversations, and thank you for the warm welcome!

indoors

Searching Gemini /
To leave the new web behind /
War is only done /
When it is gone from the mind

tffb

hi rav3n!

whiskey, hermit in the woods, minimalism (thinking Henry David T (I always misspell the last name)), FOSS, old internet - let ME pay for that drink! :D

And yea, the bulletin boards and personal pages was as far back on the Web as I date, as it was already AOL 4.0 chats and AIM personal chats when I *really* joined in 1997, but I am all-in on IRC now (tilde.chat and some libera.chat stuff), and explore many different elements of retro computing, focusing on lofi modern computing (sbc's and lightweight software, things from suckless.org and 100r.co). I plan on doing a RPi Zero W 2 running my own OpenVPN instance and a web pages (both on a small Linode instance right now).

No whiskey here, just espresso. As I dried up recently. I am more than ok with this tho.

~bartender - double-black espresso (cup of espresso with a shot of espresso), and whatever else patrons at the bar like. Let's start a Midnight tip jar at the end of the bar, maybe a guestbook, for the passers by?

Many out on the Smol Web *mention* The Midnight, few make an entry.

later

rav3ndust

hey t! many thanks! I've read some of the writings of Henry David Thoreau - always good stuff. thanks for the drink - the next one's on me :)

AIM - you bring up many memories with those 3 letters. used to chat with many online and IRL friends there back in the day. Love that you also mention suckless and 100r.co. I use a highly customized tiling window manager I've been tweaking over the years and various suckless utilities are integrated. Have also been toying with uxn since I discovered Hundred Rabbits awhile back. Fits right into that lo-fi computing ethos.

No whiskey here, just espresso. As I dried up recently. I am more than ok with this tho.

Nothing wrong with that! I tend to keep my drinks to the weekends, always enjoyed topping the week off with a few whiskeys. I'm decent at moderating myself, never been a fan of being drunk off my cake and feeling terrible the next day.

Enjoy that espresso! I'm going to need some tomorrow, got a lot of things on the task list to get done.

tffb

Yes I've been meaning to try their (100r) text editor, which the name of escapes me. Left, that's it! I forget why I was having issues with the install but I think it is because I am on 2G right now. Unlimited data does not return until July 6, so...

And yea, I downloaded like 12 of their videos the other night (slowly) as I like to keep media local. I also dug through their library and added some things to Amazon, for paperback purchase. Speaking of which tonight might be a good night to order one of those :)

Cheers!

rav3ndust

Indeed! Left is a good little editor. I keep both versions (electron and uxn) on my machines for note-taking. Thanks for the reminder, by the way - I've been meaning to order a copy of Wiktopher. Now's as good a time as any!

indoors

Here's a whiskey, neat and a double-black espresso. Mine is a spiderblack ale.

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rav3ndust

cheers, ~indoors! :)

tffb

indoors, don't bring in bootlegs to the pub! lol! ~bartender has us covered! :)

thanx for the double-black, I need it to finish the deep clean of the apartment. last night here, then a new/better place tomorrow

Sianara, Outpost.1/Command Center v.1.0 - may we recreate them dutifully!

indoors

Best of luck! You can use my spiderblack ale for your deep clean. It'd take the enamel off the bath it was made in if it hadn't already eaten a hole in the bottom.

I hope you enjoy the new/better place.

tffb

Thanks you thank you :):)