Gopher-commerce: a proposal?
Gopher-commerce: a proposal?
My recent musings on Gopher-commerce. Humbly submitted to the community for discussion...
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I bought an 1802 kit from TMSI and it could have been done over Gopher. Out-of-band payment and I had to fill out and send an order form. It went really well and I'd definitely do it again. An experiment in this space could be low-stakes; stickers or something. If Gopher is best thought of as an improvement on FTP, Gopher commerce is an improvement on sending an SASE with a dollar bill. I'd try it.
This is really encouraging, thanks! Yeah, this is really what I've been thinking, too. Was thinking about stickers and even T-shirts... Wanted to get them printed at a local shop, too -- seemed especially appropriate.
Also thinking about this for slightly larger-ticket items... not unlike that sweet 1802 kit of yours, actually. :)
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.
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.