Tinylog todo list - brain dump
Posted on 2025-04-09
Categories: gemini
Tags: tinylogs
Introduction
Since my return to the gemini space, one thing that I didn’t yet update is my tinylog. That is due to the fact I want to put more thoughts about its “future”. The future of Tinylogs, GTL, the workflow I want for my micro blogging (in general) and how I could help make tinylogs easier for others too. This short article is just a brain dump of things in my mind that will come more or less quickly.
If you don’t know what tinylogs are, you can read more about it on the Tinylog RFC page, or in a Gemlog Entry I posted. And if you want to start reading others tinylogs, look into my GTL CLI/TUI client or go the aggregator capsule.
Tinylog RFC
I’ve seen some discussion, mainly between Sandra and -fab- (on their tinylog :)) about the tinylog format. After my gemini hiatus, I’m thinking that now might be the good time to tidy up the RFC as dust has settle.
Why? Because the RFC was made to accommodate multiple users, including the first creator and users of tinylogs and others later. That’s why the date format is so permissive and why the date parser in GTL is so crazy…
My plan there is simple, in the coming days (or weeks top), I’m going to share a patch to the Tinylog RFC. I’m going to share it here and as a merge requests on codeberg and will kindly ask anyone who wants to keep the tinylog format alive to participate. The number of people still involved in the tinylog format should allow healthy communication and participation. People will be able to comment either on the merge requests, on their gemlog / tinylogs or via email directly to me.
Based on that, I’m then going to update the RFC definition, and hopefully every tinylog users will agree and update their tooling to work with the “definitive” format (and maybe more, but at least the core format should be respected).
So tinylogs users, prepare your ideas and stay tuned!
GTL
Obviously, I’ll try to do my part and update GTL. I know that Sandra and -fab- both submitted patches to GTL (and a big thank you both for that!), but before merging them I’d like to first go through the above exercise and “fix” the RFC.
Once that is done, I’ll update GTL with relevant patches and updates what needs to be updated. That will be the first step.
I’m planning to rewrite part of GTL later on too. One thing bugging me is that it isn’t fault tolerant enough, that’s why the aggregator sometimes doesn’t display all feeds, because of tiny failure or network latency. I also want to rewrite the TUI so it is a tad better looking and more importantly easier to use. I have ideas, but they need more thoughts, that’s why it will only be in step 2 after making sure the current version stay up to date with the latest RFC content.
My micro blogging workflow
Not really interesting for people than myself, but one thing I’m thinking about a lot lately is my micro blogging future workflow. I want to be able to publish micro blogging content on both my website and my capsule or just one of the two. And to the fediverse as well. So I need to find a way to write all my micro blogging content from any devices (including my phone), with the ability to select which “channel” (website, capsule, fediverse, other (eg: finger)?) will show which content.
The idea is nice on paper, but I’m not yet 100% sure of the how. But that’s my “ultimate” goal for my micro blogging writing. That’s one of the reason I haven’t wrote anything on my tinylog yet since my return to Gemini, but that will come for sure!
You can expect a dedicated gemlog entry about that later :-).
Combining a centralized service with a decentralized “protocol”?
The last piece I have in mind, and that would be for a more distant future, is trying to find a way to ease people into the tinylog words. One idea I have is to create a centralize service where people could connect (via TLS certificate) and write their tinylogs directly there and manage their subscriptions and account, a bit like station and BBS. But the main differences would be that users hosting their tinylogs outside of the service could still decide to participate and be included in every user timeline and to a public aggregated page (like the existing one).
It means that it would be a centralized tinylog manager but federated with any tinylogs out there… A bit like the fediverse but for tinylogs. Maybe that would be the real social network we deserve in the Gemini space. At least I think that tinylogs have that potential.
It would take a bit more time to develop though. And while it wouldn’t be an herculean task, my free time has been very minimal lately so I can’t commit to anything at this point.
But I would love to hear/read any feedback or ideas related to such a service!
I’ll write again about it when all previous items will be done or in good shape and that I feel closer to actually working on such a tool.
Conclusion
That’s it for today’s brain dump about tinylogs. Next tinylog entry should be related to the RFC. Hopefully I can make that happen “soon-ish” :-).