[gopher] A new convert to gopher!

[brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Sorry about going off-topic from the current discussion threads, but I
just wanted to share a small anecdote about a recent gopher convert.

My wife is a typical computer user:  She can navigate a browser, but
if you mentioned "gopher" to her she'd think of the animal, not the
protocol, and no amount of explaining would change the fact that
gopher is, in fact, an animal.

I recently discovered Cameron's weather forecasts that he is carrying on
floodgap (gopher://gopher.floodgap.com/1/groundhog).  I know my wife
is always watching the weather, so on a lark I sent her this link and
asked her what she thought about it.  The conversation went something
like this:

Her: "This is pretty cool...does it update?"
Me: "Yep...every 2 hours a new forecast comes out."
Her: "Where are the popups?"
Me: [pointedly avoiding the word 'gopher'] "Well, this is a site that
eliminates all that."
Her: "So this updates automatically?  And I don't have to deal with
clicking on a lot of links and popups?"
Me: "Nope...here, I'll make it easy for you." [helpfully puts link in
toolbar]
Her: "Very cool...looks like it's going to rain tonight!  You'll need
to bring the grill in, and clear the back table, and..."

At any rate:  A new gopher convert.  It was that simple:  Just showing
here something she's not seen before.  Never in a thousand years
would she have stumbled upon this on her own.  And I believe she
represents the typical computer user:  Unless there is some
handholding involved, it will be unlikely such a user will ever
discover gopher on their own. 

Just a small anecodote that demonstrates how easy it could be to gain
new gopher converts.  Granted, this is a very tiny case study that is
by no means generalizable across the population of computer users, but
I figure if I was able to get one new person hooked on one aspect of
gopher, there's no reason to believe there aren't others out there who
will be receptive to the message.

  --Brian