Perhaps. Gopher is simply a single, world-wide, hierarchical, indexed and searchable directory tree. Its sole means of transport is ftp. It can move all manner of formats about but only display ASCII text. The only thing resembling hyperlinks are the lowly gophermaps, one per directory. Gopher servers are small, simple and require few resources. Gopher clients are minuscule. Gopher with veronica is essentially a library card catalog that directs you to the proper stack and shelf to fulfill your query. And there is not a single commercial farthing to be made anywhere...
> It can move all manner of formats about but only display ASCII text. The only thing resembling hyperlinks are the lowly gophermaps, one per directory.
That’s the point you should be focusing on: it’s not a competitive user experience. The commercialization angle isn’t “no way to extract money” but “no users”.
I remember the era of BBSes, Fidonet, and then getting access to the internet. FTP was obviously useful. The web was extremely useful. Gopher was … “what’s the point?”
Gopher was designed for and by academia. It is simply a research tool. It is a way to post, find and retrieve textual data on a topic. It still does exactly what it was designed to do. That what it was designed to do is no longer relevant, given the web, is besides the point. It still functions as designed, much like the ed editor. And that it is now used almost exclusively by hobbyists trying to recreate an 80's dial-up BBS aura is also besides the point...
