Pay no attention to the [[Profile|man behind the curtain]]. What we make can change the world.
- I practice human-scale programming.
- I want to embellish all the things.
- I believe in a web for everyone, not just pros.
[This website](index.html) started out as an experiment. My goals were:
- test a new kind of [[Design|web design]] and page structure;
- fool around with an underused [[Wikis|wiki engine]].
Since then, some other things have gathered:
- [[Notes]] on the [[Jabber]] network and [[Gopher]] protocols.
Profile
I'm a programmer who struggles to write code. A [[Design|web designer]] with severe burnout. An old looking for a place in these times.
Art still helps a little. Let's talk:
- [Neocities](https://nosycat.neocities.org/) 🐱 [Codeberg](https://codeberg.org/nosycat) ⛰️ [SpaceHey](https://spacehey.com/nosycat) 👨🚀 [PeerTube](https://cuddly.tube/a/nosycat) 📽️ [Open Game Art](https://opengameart.org/users/nosycat) 🎮
<q>The links page is the powerhouse of the web.</q> – matt bee
<q>Link like the indie web depended on it</q> – [Newsonaut](https://www.newsonaut.com/articles/link-like-the-indie-web-depended-on-it)
## Credits and license
This wiki is made with [Siteleteer](https://alamantus.codeberg.page/siteleteer/#About%20siteleteer).
—
Copyleft: This is a free work, you can copy, distribute, and modify it
under the terms of the [Free Art License](https://artlibre.org/licence/lal/en/).
Design
In Ancient Greece, the word "techne" meant both art and craft. It's as if they considered both synonymous back then, or at least equally worthy: a surprising show of humility from a famously proud culture.
Nowadays the closest thing we have to that is design: art in the service of practical creations. You know, like machinery. Or... [web pages](https://nosycat.codeberg.page/web/).
(It's perhaps odd that this is even an issue. Imagine clothes tailored with no concern for aesthetics, except for highly specific situations. People even make graveyards pretty.)
Makes sense, too: you can't make a fancy painting or compose a symphony without technique, any more than you can make a car too small to accommodate an engine, or seats for humans.
The problem is, of course, that technique in turn requires rigor and self-discipline. Those are dirty words nowadays. Worse, design requires empathy: feeling and caring for what others need or want. Empathy hurts. That scares people.
But also: artists keep saying they don't want any constraints. Like what, handrails on stairs? We've tried drawing outside the page once computers made that possible. Literally, with infinite scroll for example. It turned out to be poison for attention spans: a trap.
Graphic design doesn't have to mean "unreadable artsy-fartsy websites". It's up to us. See also: [Design versus GUI](https://nosycat.notimetoplay.org/2025-07-12-design.html).
Notes
I'm beginning to think that what you put on the [[Home|homepage]] of a wiki matters a lot. It provides writing prompts and sets the tone for everything that comes after.
A [[Wikis|wiki]] should always have comprehensive links between pages, even if it comes with a sidebar, go-to bar or other global navigation.
- That's easier said than done, but still a good goal.
For years I used directories on websites as containers. There's a better way to look at them: as *namespaces*.
You need four levels of headings to organize a document properly (web page or not). Three simply aren't enough. The POD markup format is made that way for a reason.
Some experiments don't pan out. It's okay to let go and move on.
Jabber
[Jabber](https://joinjabber.org/) is a federated chat platform not so different from IRC or Matrix. It's based on an open protocol named [XMPP](https://xmpp.org/), that's secretly used in more places than you'd expect.
My current home on the network is [JabberFR](https://jabberfr.org/) (at [PulkoMandy](https://pulkomandy.tk/)'s recommendation) and my client of choice right now is [Psi Plus](https://psi-im.org/). Both have fairly extensive [[Wikis|wikis]] on their respective sites.
These days I also resumed looking into [Movim](https://movim.eu/), a social network built on top of XMPP, much like Mastodon and Lemmy are based on ActivityPub. It's not on par with Discord or Tumblr quite yet, but damn if it's not getting really close now. My [test blog](https://movim.queer-spark.org/blog/NosyCat) there is kind of empty for now, but I have to start somewhere.
A personal blog can be created on Movim with any XMPP account, not necessarily from the same server. Turns out, that's because feeds are in fact a feature of the protocol, supported by a few other clients such as Monocles Chat. What Movim can do is give your microblog a public address on the web.
Conversely, ask the admins before making a community. To make just one group chat or three, on some servers you don't need any permission; on others it's frowned upon to make your own willy-nilly. If it doubt, use service discovery on your own server first.
(Contrast with Matrix, where it's self-understood that everyone is welcome to create their own spaces and rooms.)
Gopher
These are a handful of notes about the Gopher protocol. It accidentally took the shape of an FAQ while being written.
## What's Gopher?
To oversimplify, Gopher was a precursor of the Web, that fell by the wayside for various reasons. Nowadays considered obsolete, it's kept alive by a handful of fans, not just out of nostalgia but also its genuine qualities.
Gopher is much simpler than the web. It uses less bandwidth, processing power and screen space. It's still largely text-based, so you won't have to deal with annoying ads (or any kind of script for that matter). Gopher is limited, but what it can do, it does quickly, cleanly and with no fuss.
## Why does it matter?
Because the internet is turning into a web-based monoculture, and every monoculture is a disaster waiting to happen.
## Who's on Gopher?
Oh, a bunch of different parties:
- [Floodgap Systems](gopher://gopher.floodgap.com:70/1) is basically Gopher's town square.
- [quux.org](gopher://quux.org:70/1) is a vast archive of digital history.
- The [Tildeverse](gopher://tildeverse.org) has a significant Gopher presence.
But also interesting personal projects like [The Cyber Vanguard](gopher:cyber.dabamos.de:70/1/) and [Voice of Mercury](gopher:mercury.661.org:70/1/).
There are only a few hundred gopherholes, as they're called, but they hide a few gems.
## How do I get there?
Lightweight browsers like [Lynx](https://invisible-island.net/lynx/lynx.html) or [Kristall](https://kristall.random-projects.net/) have Gopher support. For Android there [DeBurrow](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/dev.debene.gopher/), or else you can run Lynx in Termux.
The [public Gopher proxy](https://gopher.floodgap.com/gopher/) at Floodgap Systems can be used from any other web browser. The same page offers an introduction to the protocol.
## Where to find out more
In addition to the above page, [mari's Gopher Repository](https://archives.somnolescent.net/web/gopherinfo/) has some information. If you already have a client, [GopherProject.org](gopher://gopherproject.org/) provides a number of starting points, too. See also:
- [Small Gopher HOW-TO](https://box.matto.nl/small-gopher-howto.html)
- [Gopher burrows on](https://www.goodinternetmagazine.com/gopher-burrows-on/)
Wikis
This site only has a wiki due to my recent habit of putting one everywhere. And every one of my wikis has a page about wikis because that's how I roll. Besides, [wiki's not dead](https://www.thefrugalgamer.net/links_wikis.php).
(Some people will argue it's not a wiki if it doesn't allow for collaboration, but I say language drifts. Call it a digital garden instead if you prefer. Besides, you can edit this one in your browser, save your own version and publish it somewhere else. We can even have a conversation that way if I happen to know about you.)
Without friction, you can't get any traction; too much friction, and you'll be going nowhere fast. That's where a wiki engine can still matter.
Bonus points for using one that lends itself well to being placed into source control.
## Engines
See also the extended list on [Tao of Mac](https://taoofmac.com/space/old/otherwikis).
### [PmWiki](https://www.pmwiki.org/)
Pro:
* Relatively light at 1.5M
* Made in PHP, easy to deploy
* Tons of features for page organization
* Incredibly easy to make themes
* Ships with extensive documentation
Con:
* Setup via PHP config file
* Handling attached files is clumsy at best
### [Oddmuse](https://oddmuse.org/)
Pro:
* Very light at <200K!
* Made in Perl, easy to deploy
* Ships with literally hundreds of plugins
* Built-in blogging support
* Trivially themed by editing one stylesheet
Con:
* Setup requires adequate technical knowledge
* File attachments are best used sparingly
Oddmuse was last updated in ~~2023~~ 2025.
### [TiddlyWiki](https://tiddlywiki.com/)
Pro:
* It's just a self-contained web page that can save itself with all changes!
* Lots of cool, unusual features
* Less bureaucracy: there's no installations, logins or page history
Con:
* The Classic 2.x line has long-standing bugs and is limited.
* The new 5.x line is big, slow and complicated to use.
### [Feather Wiki](https://feather.wiki/)
Pro:
* Modern, lightweight alternative to TiddlyWiki
* Uses a rich text editor by default
Con:
* The tag system is weak
### [DokuWiki](https://www.dokuwiki.org/)
Pro:
* Made in PHP, easy to deploy
* Excellent media manager built in
* Comprehensive control panel
* Built-in source code highlighting
Con:
* Relatively heavy at 14MB
* Difficult to make templates for
### [Pepperminty Wiki](https://peppermint.mooncarrot.space/)
Pro:
* Ships as single PHP file, easy to deploy
* Modern user interface with control panel and such
* Uses Markdown
Con:
* Highly opinionated, wants sites to be //just so//
* Uses Markdown
### [MoinMoin](https://moinmo.in/)
Pro:
* Easy to run locally via Python
* Rich markup built-in
* Decent handling of file attachments
Con:
* Not easily deployed on shared hosts
* Few themes available, hard to even install
The last stable release of MoinMoin relies on the long-obsolete Python 2. Development continues as of 2026, but a new version using Python 3 still wasn't formally released.