My recent musings on Gopher-commerce. Humbly submitted to the community for discussion…

  • @dbucklin
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    31 year ago

    It might be worth thinking about some kind of rating system or method for confirming purchases a la Reddit marketplaces. Maybe buyers can create a gopher-accessible file with purchase details and sellers can link to that as a way of building a reputation.

    • @screwtapeM
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      11 year ago

      You’ve actually convinced me that this was at least a reasonable idea but I don’t think a gopherhole shop rating system would be in theme with the closely knit community dynamic we have.

      The protocol was going to have a feature-rich, shopping-friendly set of extensions, but when this was proposed in 1993, there was a community backlash against commercialising the gopher; read Albert Rosetti’s booklet about what happened. This is roughly how the gopher protocol became both liberated and hyperstable in the early 90s.

      Imagine if a gopher wanted to sell or otherwise pass on some old computer hardware. It makes sense to share that on their gopherhole: And since payment handling is ~ always legally middle-manned by a payment handler who will handle the payment anyway, the protocol wouldn’t need to be extended to be a payment processer.

      On the other hand, I would be against paving paradise to put up a parking lot.