The Gopher protocol (Gopher) is a protocol designed for distributing, searching, and retrieving documents. Gopher provides the linking and labeling capabilities of HTTP, with the structured hierarchy of FTP. On these webpages you will discover the worlds most comprehensive Gopher Protocol archive, including all known Client and Server software.
External Resources
- There is an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel dedicated to the Gopher protocol, (#gopherproject), on the Freenode IRC server. Information about Freenode itself is available on the World Wide Web at: http://freenode.net/.
- A Distribute mailing list for "Gopher discussions, questions, and advocacy" is available. To subscribe, send an e-mail with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject line to: gopher-request@complete.org.
- Two specialty Distribute mailing lists are also available for Gopher developers. The list for persons interested in "developing an entirely new Protocol based upon the Gopher Protocol" can be joined by visiting: http://lists.shii.org/listinfo.cgi/heffalump-shii.org. The list for persons interested in "developing new(er) Gopher Projects" can be joined by visiting: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/gopher-project.
- There is a NNTP global-newsgroup (comp.infosystems.gopher) that is dedicated to Gopher. The newsgroup focuses on four aspects of Gopher; Gopher Client development, Gopher Server development, Gopherspace Engineering, and the Gopher Protocol in general. An archived reflection of this Gopher newsgroup is available on the World Wide Web at: http://groups.google.com/group/comp.infosystems.gopher/topics.
- OpenNIC has a Top Level Domain of ".gopher" to highlight sites offering content via the gopher protocol. The .gopher TLD charter is available on the OpenNIC wiki: http://wiki.opennic.glue/GopherCharter. You must use an OpenNIC DNS nameserver to access this wiki, because the address is not recognized by conventional IANA DNS nameservers.
- A Gopher to HTTP Proxy is available at: http://gopherproxy.meulie.net/ - (and here is a list of public Gopher server addresses).