Gemspace is a mess

The main page of the "main" site (geminiprotocol.net/)[1], the one that hosts the docs and specifications, specifically the one which states:

3. a empty path component and a path component of "/" are equivalent and servers MUST support both without sending a redirection;

redirects you to "geminiprotocol.net/" if you send a request to "geminiprotocol.net".

This is the same site that hosts a document called "TLS, client certificates, TOFU, and all that jazz"[2] which currently (April 10th, 2025) sits incomplete, leaving out "...client certificates, TOFU, and all that jazz (aka Practical questions). The headings are there, but the only text beneath them is "Coming soon". The only parts that are written are a brief overview of what TLS Certificates are and how they work on the "normal" web (you know; the parts that didn't require the author to do any of their own work, they simply summarized info that is already easily available to anyone with an internet connection and a normal web browser)

This document is less than worthless. Why even have the thing? Why even waste that tiny bit of effort when you could have just pointed to the wiki article on pubkey certificates[3]???

It is very much indicative of the wider state of gemini and it's microcommunity right now. Dead links, mountains of reposted 3rd party content (news articles etc) rehosted blogs and gopher phlogs, abandoned gemlogs and abandoned, half-finished projects). It's a ghost town of laziness and the pervasive inability to commit to anything.

This is, unfortunately, also reflective of the wider digital culture that has been leaking out into "meatspace" for a long time now as reality and the simulation are becoming completely indistinguishable. You maintain interest in a thing until the dopamine bump is no longer doing it for you then you move on to the next thing.

Everything is disposable and single-use, even the cultural ephemera.[4]

footnotes

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4] yes I understand the implications of a blog hosted on a cross-protocol portal bitching about the state of things