Web Reposts in Gemini
2025-08-18
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A few days ago, Jeff of sh0.xyz expressed frustration with the uptick of news articles being shared on Antenna, as well as on ActivityPub services like the Fediverse.^ Many others weighed in on the topic, expressing a range of opinions about automated and reposted content.
On the Gemini side, it seems the discussion was spurred by a flurry of news articles that have been posted on Antenna by a user called ybaumy. After reading the articles personally, ybaumy archives them in Gemtext using a script, presumably hand-written. The articles are then checked into a Codeberg repository, mirrored on Gemini, and added to an Atom feed that is probably automatically submitted to Antenna once per day.^^
In replies to his original post, Jeff elaborated that collecting links from the wider Internet by itself isn't the problem. The problem is posting all of those links (or mirrors of them) directly, with little to no curation, and especially if the posts are automated. It adds a lot of clutter to a space whose original purpose was to share gemlogs and other personal writings, transforming it instead into an impersonal news aggregator. It would be better, Jeff argues, to post a single page on your capsule with your selection of links for the day, then share that single page to the Gemini aggregators.^^^
The discussion reminds me of a thought I had a long time ago about social media. For many years, I wanted an option on Facebook and Twitter to see personal content only. I wanted the ability to hide shared posts on Facebook and retweets on Twitter, so the only posts that came through were posts written directly by the people I had connected with. I especially wanted such a feature on Twitter: I chose the accounts I followed rather carefully, and if I'd wanted to see what accounts outside that list posted, I'd have followed them myself.
Of course, such an option would be antithetical to the revenue models of social media. Content-driven platforms require engagement to make revenue, and they get that engagement by continually trying to hook users into seeing more and more content. That extra engagement primarily manifests as the "share" button. Sharing mechanisms also give the sites direct feedback about what kinds of content are popular, and by applying the manipulative magic of AI and algorithms, sites can shape the flow of popular content to push certain messaging or advertise products.
While media companies made money, though, conversations eroded. My Facebook and Twitter feeds eventually became so overrun with reposts that I saw almost nothing else. To view posts that were made by my friends and colleagues, I needed to go to their pages directly and sift through dozens of shared posts. If I had to proactively remember to go to their profiles to see things they posted themselves, what was the point of the follow mechanism in the first place? Conversely, it became increasingly unlikely that anyone who followed me would see what I posted, because popular reposts would be rewarded by the algorithm and bump my personal posts out of view.
Part of Gemini's allure is that it bucks the trends of social media. Content aggregators are already few and far between, and the ones that do exist do not promote any posts over others. There is no built-in "share" button that automatically sends a page to other Geminauts. There is no algorithmic control over what posts are seen. Anyone is allowed to share any thought they wish, and only discoverability is needed for that post to eventually be found.
The spirit of Gemini, however, goes beyond simple freedom from manipulation. This is a do-it-yourself space, filled with people self-documenting things that are important to them and assembling entire spaces of their own one page at a time. Most of the content on Gemini is original, likely being written for the express purpose of being shared on the protocol. This very log entry is an example of that. Geminispace is what it is, not because companies or governments built it up and let consumers in, but because enterprising developers and curious users, tired of the commercial pressures of the mainline Internet, carved out a digital hovel for themselves. Social media is content-driven, irrespective of its origin, while Gemini is user-driven, each member contributing something unique to its character.
That's not to say that reposted or non-original content has no place in Gemini. The ability to access useful Internet information without the clutter or overhead is one of the coolest things the Gemini community has ever made. I love being able to read news articles, get weather forecasts, and even listen to music over the Gemini protocol.
The difference, as Jeff argues, is curation. The Web is full of automated garbage, from AI-generated articles and images to advertising to ragebait to NSFW hooks and more. Geminauts are a discerning lot, and when we find something that particularly speaks to us, we want to share it. Most of us do so by collecting a list of links or mirrors by hand and sharing only the list. I think that's the courteous thing to do.
In the case that ybaumy is reading this log, please don't stop sharing articles on the Gemini protocol. While my positions don't align with all of them, many of them are still fascinating to read. My only suggestion might be to collate all of them into a daily page, such as "2025-08-18 Articles and Links," and sharing that daily page to Antenna.
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[Last updated: 2025-08-26]