Small-Net

Small-Net is a social-movement born in the late 2010s and early 2020s focused on using & creating technology that serve and to put the needs of individuals first, before everything else — and in particular:

• the needs of the individual with respect to his or her active relationship with his or her friends and family, and
• the needs of the individual with respect to joining and actively participating in one or more (usually smaller) communities.

"Small-Net" is also sometimes written (without the hyphen) as "smallnet", and (with "small" written as "smol") as "smolnet".

Related to small-net is "small-web", which is also sometimes written (without the hyphen) as "smallweb", and (with "small" written as "smol") as "smolweb". "Small-Web", in some contexts, can be be considered a sub-set of small-net; and in other contexts can be considered more or less synonymous with small-net.

Motivation

The small-net social-movement (as well as some other social-movements) was born out of a feeling that the modern (2010s and 2020s era) Internet, Web, and social-media are broken.

Reasons for feeling that the modern (2010s and 2020s era) Internet, Web, and social-media is broken include the ubiquity of individuals:

• getting spied on,
• getting tracked,
• having their privacy taken away from them,
• getting turned into a product, and sold,
• getting their online identity taken away from them,
• getting censored,
• getting manipulated,
• getting their source of income taken from them because it suits someone else's interests, and
• getting controlled.

In addition to this, other reasons for feeling that the modern (2010s and 2020s era) Internet, Web, and social-media is broken include the ubiquity of and obtrusiveness of:

• advertisements,
• GDPR cookie consent pop-ups,
• join-newsletter pop-ups, and
• allow-notification pop-ups.

Small-Net is partially an attempt to fix these things by using and even creating alternatives to the modern (2010s and 2020s era) Internet, Web, and social-media.

Vintage Protocols

Small-Net enthusiasts are sometimes attracted to vintage computer networks protocols. The vintage computer network protocols that tend to get a lot of attention from small-net enthusiasts include:

• the finger protocol,
• the gopher protocol, and
• the telnet protocol.

With the gopher computer network protocol probably being the most popular of the three among small-net enthusiasts.

Some other vintage computer network protocols that also sometimes get attention from small-net enthusiasts include:

• the active users protocol (IETF RFC-866),
• the character generator protocol (CHARGEN) (IETF RFC-864),
• the daytime protocol (IETF RFC-867),
• the discard protocol (IETF RFC-863),
• the echo protocol (IETF RFC-862),
• the network news transfer protocol (NNTP) (IETF RFC-977, RFC-1036, RFC-2980, RFC-3977, RFC-4642),
• the post office protocol (POP),
• the quote of the day protocol (IETF RFC-865),
• the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP),
• the time protocol (IETF RFC-868), and
• the UUCP protocol.

Vintage Data Formats

Some vintage file data formats have also attracted the attention of small-net enthusiasts; namely:

• the ANSI text format,
• the ASCII text format,
• the Code Page 437 (CP437) text format,
• the Mattel Aquarius text format,
• the PETSCII text format,
• the Teletext text format,
• the TRS-80 text format,
• the Videotex text format,
• the XSL style format,
• the XSLT style format,
• the XHTML document format,
• the XML data format,
• the ZX80 text format, and
• the ZX81 text format.

"Modernization"

Although many small-net enthusiasts are attracted to vintage protocols, some have found those vintage protocols difficult to work with and lacking features they feel as important.

A reaction to this is that there have been attempts to create "modernized" versions of these vintage protocols, while trying to avoid the mistakes of the modern (2010s and 2020s era) Internet, Web, and social-media.

"Modernization" can include:

• including support for Unicode UTF-8,
• including support for URLs and URIs,
• including support for hypertext,
• including support for rich-text, and
• including support for media.

Retro Protocols

Some retro protocols — that are attempts to "modernize" specific vintage protocols — that have come out of the small-net communities include:

• the gemini protocol,
• the mercury protocol,
• the nex protocol, and
• the spartan protocol.

With —

• the gemini protocol being an attempt to "moderize" the gopher protocol, while not enabling the same mistakes of the Web,
• the mercury protocol more or less being the gemini protocol without TLS encryption,
• the spartan protocol being an alternative to the gemini protocol that does less "modernizations", and
• the nex protocol being an attempt to be even simpler than and even fixing some aspects of the gemini protocol.

Retro Data Formats

Some other retro file data formats — that are attempts to "modernize" specific vintage file data formats — that either have come out of the small-net communities or have drawn the attention of people in the small-net communities include:

• the gemtext format,
• the json feed format,
• the markdown format,
• the nex directory format, and
• the twtxt format.

Other Protocols and Formats

Although not generally considered part of small-net, these protocols and file data formats are also often of interest to small-net enthusiasts:

• acct-URI,
• hash-URI,
• magnet-URI,
• the ActivityPub protocol,
• the ActivityStream protocol,
• the at-protocol,
• the BitTorrent protocol,
• the kademlia protocol,
• the gnutella protocol,
• the node to node copy protocol (NNCP),
• the nostr protocol,
• the secure scuttlebutt protocol, and
• the WebFinger protocol.

Small-Net Goals

There are a loose collection of goals that seem to be commonly desired by small-net enthusiasts. These goals in part explain why certain protocols and file data formats are of interest.

Not all small-net enthusiasts desire all of these goals. And some of these goals are even in conflict with each other.

But one does not have to satisfy all of these goals in the same protocol.

And also, noting all these different goals is important to understanding the small-net social-movement, even if some are in conflict.

These goals seem to be (in alphabetical order based on category, and not in order of popularity):

Debates

There are several debates within the small-net communities: