Ray's Phlog 2024 April 23 Join us on GOPHER! Compared to 20 years ago, the internet is pretty dead. Between the corporate takeover of pretty much everything, security concerns, AI-produced content, and copyright fears, there are few places left online where there thrives a spirit of creativity and rebellion. Gopherspace is an exception! The venerable gopher protocol, in existence since 1991, is still around. True, it is a purely text-based protocol that does not have all the bells and whistles of the modern internet. But with a bit of programming there is a LOT you can do with text! If you'd like to carve out an online space away from the corporate overlords check out gopher. Getting started is easy! Just point your browser to: https://gp.ratthing.com/gopher.ratthing.com/1/ then go to the bottom of that page to the link "Floodgap.com gopher central" From there you can find many links to educate yourself on gopher. Once you're ready to dive in, go to: https://sdf.org and sign up for a free Unix shell account, which comes with a free gopherspace to call your own.