My first contribution to Geminispace

I am thrilled to finally start making my own contributions (content/information wise) to Geminispace. I have been lurking since early 2023 after discovering the protocol and decided that one of my goals for 2025 is to engage more with Geminispace and everything else that is Gemini protocol related. I believe that the Gemini protocol and by extension Geminispace is important, especially in the times that we are currently living in, and more than just a toy or hobby (project). Therefore, I have a responsibility to contribute to ensuring its success and at the very least continued existence. Ultimately, I want to contribute by having my own Gemini capsule through a Gemini server process running on my own VPS as well as perhaps contributing software to the Gemini ecosystem as I am a programmer (at least I possess basic programming skills that I have not utilized or exercised for quite some time now). However, since for the time being I am short on both money and time I decided posting on a shared Gemini host such as the Midnight Pub would make for a good first step. IMHO we should all wish and strive for as great a variety and amount of content and information to be accessible through the Gemini protocol as possible. Even if there is content or information that one does not particularly care for or perhaps even actively and passionately dislikes, it contributes to the the adoption and strength of the Gemini protocol and Geminispace, which as I mentioned earlier in my opinion is a worthwhile goal in and of itself (I will elaborate on that in a future post). It is important to keep in mind that Gemini is not a platform (let alone a particular instance of a federated platform such as Mastodon). Gemini is rather the smol web, which means that IMHO it is destined to essentially be the Wild West (within the confines of the relevant physical jurisdictions obviously): decentralized (for the most part and hopefully more so than the "large", or perhaps more accurately described as "fat", web of the 2020s) and not beholden to a particular ideology, political entity, corporation, language or region of the world.

no-name

Hi! nice to hear that you want to make contributions.

I just want to say, (perhaps at the risk of sounding suspiciously like a paid advertiser) if you're looking for a cheap/free vps, oracle cloud is pretty good.

It does require a credit card to sign up, but the "always free" resources are pretty good: 2 micro instances, and a pretty generous usage limit on the ampere instances (enough to run a 4 cpu/24 GB ram instance for a whole month, every month).

I've been using it for a few months to host a blog and a Gitea instance (along with a micro instance acting as an Gitea actions runner). I've heard some stuff about idle instances being reclaimed, but I didn't have much issue so far (though with oracle being oracle I wouldn't be surprised). I guess you could upgrade to a PAYG account to avoid that (you still pay nothing as long as you don't exceed always free resources).

I don't like selling my soul to corporations, but honestly? What oracle cloud gives is a pretty good deal in exchange for my soul :) </shill>

naan96

Thanks for the tip, but Oracle is honestly really a no-go for me LOL. I had already come to the conclusion that a shared host such as the circumlunarspace colonies would be a better option for me. And if they ever need donations, I could chip in with a small donation. That would be a better choice than a subscription type of expense in my case.

no-name

yeah, I totally understand why oracle can be a turn-off. I do like free stuff though.

never heard of the circumlunar.space colonies before, hmm. they look cool. and yeah, shared hosting isn't a bad choice. good luck!

drgreengood

I'd love to hear you extrapolate on your 'wild west' comment. It does paint a sort of fantastical picture of a better web that could be, and I love that.

Best wishes

naan96

I just meant to say that Gemini is not a platform like Facebook or YouTube with its own "content moderation" and algorithmic feeds or "home pages" operated in the interest of a large corporation (and arguably one or more national governments). Instead it is like the web; it is not controlled by one or a small group of corporations, (bloc of) national governments, organizations or ideologies. Anyone can at the very least start their own Gemini host and start publishing whatever content or information they want (as long as it does not violate their local laws and the laws of wherever their host is located). And we should hope IMHO that content/information is contributed to Geminispace by as many individuals and organizations as possible, regardless of which nation (or other political entity) or ideology they are associated with, or in what language it is written. Because IMO the adoption of Gemini is an important goal in and of itself. I will elaborate on that in my next post, which I hopefully will be able to write in the next few days.