Re: Project Gutenberg Gopher
On Tue, 16 Jan 2018 20:54:41 -0500
James Tomasino <tomasino@sdf.org> wrote:
> For publicity I would suggest a combination of social platforms that
> have support for gopher. There has been a lot of talk on Mastodon, and
> word of Project Gutenberg will spread quickly through the ranks there.
> Hacker News has had three relatively high traffic posts in the last
> two months on Gopher. Again, the credibility of Project Gutenberg
> will help spread the word beyond folks that click a link because of
> the word gopher. Reddit could be an interesting outlet, but you'd
> want to go beyond the /r/gopher group and get noticed in /r/TIL or
> even /r/mildlyinteresting. If you can target a sub that's in the
> default favorites list you'll get a lot of views.
>
> That bridges the conversation to the next point. Once you give people
> the info that it exists, you'll have a lot of people that aren't
> familiar asking some basic questions. Do you provide background on
> Gopher in the post, or tease it like "The Web before the Web", or rely
> on links. Not many people will have instant access to check it out, so
> you could consider a proxy, but it will undermine the idea of gopher
> if someone can easily see it like a text-only webpage. I'd suggest
> you and Dr. Newby discuss your strategy there. You might be able to
> dream up something more substantial than just a note.
>
> For instance, you could highlight some of the content in Project
> Gutenberg that deals with outdated technologies (*cough* not that
> Gopher fits that title) and make a press release that curates some
> fitting content exclusively in that medium. That would be an extra
> value-add to folks that want to spend a little extra time to explore.
>
> Lastly, there's definitely some value in public relations both for the
> gopher protocol and Project Gutenberg if you can get discussed in a
> mainstream medium. Shoot a note to some tech writers at some of the
> more popular magazines, not just specialty subs. Forbes or
> FastCompany might not do an article, but you might get a mention in a
> sidebar.
>
> Finally, I'd recommend you have some fun with it. What you've got is
> actually a really useful service and not just a throwaway side
> project. If you can showcase it as something special that has a
> personal touch it will resonate longer with the people.
>
> Good luck
>
Definitely not doing any of the above without a rewrite... good
suggestions all. The existing code was written as a personal interface.
The rewrite needs to be clean. Looks like I have a project.
--
Nathaniel Leveck
gopher://gopher.leveck.us
https://www.leveck.us
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