Deadkeys

Digital Necromancy

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The Small Web

Your character sheet is a text file. Your wiki pages are text files. Your configuration is a text file. Everything on DeadKeys is stored in formats you can read with cat, search with grep, track with diff, and back up by copying a folder.

We chose plaintext because it doesn't lock you in. You don't need our software to read your own data. There are no cookies on this site, no JavaScript telemetry, no analytics. Just documents.

"We are out to build a lightweight online space where documents are just documents, in the interests of every reader's privacy, attention and bandwidth."

-- Project Gemini

Privacy on DeadKeys

The IRC server does not log conversations. There are no server-side records of what you say, who you talk to, or when you're online. All connections require TLS encryption on port 6697. Plaintext connections are not accepted.

Keeper is the one exception, and it's not hidden. Keeper is a logging bot that sits in the in-character RP channels and records game sessions. Everyone in those channels knows it's there and is so in order that the Storytellers can reference past events. Keeper does not log out-of-character channels. The logs are for the game, not for watching people.

Our Plaintext Stack

You can download your character sheet and open it in Notepad, VS Code, or vim. You can diff two versions to see what changed between sessions. You can keep your own copy. The format will outlive whatever software we're running.

A character sheet looks like this:

[header]
name = "Walks-the-Storm"
player = "Jane"

[attributes.physical]
strength = 3
dexterity = 4
stamina = 3

Gemini & Gopher

DeadKeys is also available over two protocols that predate or reject the modern web.

Gemini sits between Gopher and the web. It uses TLS encryption but strips away everything else: no cookies, no tracking headers, no JavaScript, no stylesheets. Pages are plain formatted text. The protocol is intentionally non-extensible. It was designed to stay simple, not to grow features.

"Gemini isn't about innovation or disruption, it's about providing some respite for those who feel the internet has been disrupted enough already."

-- Project Gemini

From the Gemini FAQ:

"If you wish that browsing the web felt more like browsing a library than wandering through a shopping mall or a casino, Gemini could be right up your alley."

-- Gemini FAQ

Gopher is one of the oldest internet protocols, developed at the University of Minnesota in 1991, before the web took over. It organizes content into hierarchical menus of plain text. No decoration, no layout. A small community keeps it alive because the simplicity is the point.

DeadKeys content is available at:

To browse these, we recommend Lagrange, a client that handles both Gemini and Gopher. It runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android.

Further Reading

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