A gopher server is a storehouse of text files accessible using a gopher client, or nowadays more commonly using a web browser. Anything you can imagine that has been put in writing is probably on a gopher server somewhere. When you find a likely gopher, all you need to do is burrow through the menus. For instance, the opening page of wiretap.area.com has some odds and ends, but the guts of this server is the Wiretap Online Library (HTTP URL).
It was a great server on which to learn gophering. Nowadays, however, most gopher repositories are on HTTP servers, for which reason the URLs for Wiretap's HTTP server are given alternatively below. One real gopher server remaining is at the University of Pennsylvania, and some more are suggested here.
There are some interesting files available from the opening page. For instance in a directory called Government Docs (US & World) (HTTP URL) you'll find the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (HTTP URL), the Fair Credit Reporting Act (HTTP URL), the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (HTTP URL) and other statutes like the Uniform Code of Military Justice (HTTP URL). There's a Citizen's Guide to using the Freedom of Information Act (HTTP URL) and some old Department of Justice documents on Civil Forfeiture of Assets (HTTP URL), some international treaties like the Maastricht Treaty of European Union (HTTP URL) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (HTTP URL). And there's .... well, you get the picture.
The problem is that gopher servers are not kept up to date. They are a hodge-podge of whatever someone stuck on the server in a rush of idiosyncratic enthusiasm, and probably no one's ever looked at it again. Many are closing down entirely. Some gophers are now hosted on HTTP servers, like Wiretap itself, and the Gopher Jewels. The fruitful and fun part ofexploring gopherspace is to embrace serendipity. I just love digging around in gophers to see what's there. (I couldn't find a picture of a gopher, so I used a rabbit -- they burrow too, don't they?)
That's why I find the wiretap.area gopher so wonderful. It has a number of directories, most of which are filled with texts. It doesn't matter that they are not "maintained" or kept up because their value is as permanent -- and as accessible -- as the physical server is. In the Wiretap Online Library (HTTP URL) you can find the classics (HTTP URL) and religion (HTTP URL) subdirectories, for example.
There is an FTP Index of Library Directories to peruse (HTTP URL) (this shows the file sizes and the location of the texts within the server's directory structure) or the catalog of online books. But now it's time to burrow in the Wiretap Online Library if you haven't begun already (HTTP URL). In Questionables (HTTP URL) you'll find articles on how to make alcohol and how to make bombs, a terrorist's handbook and garage door opener plans. And in a directory called Fringes of Reason (HTTP URL), there are subdirectories called Conspiracies, Gross and Disgusting, Occult and Paranormal, Pharmacological Cornucopia, UFO's and Mysterious Abductions, and just plain Very Strange. But right next door, in the Classics directory (HTTP URL), there is a literary cornucopia that outshines the pharmacological one by an order of magnitude. From Aesop to Beowolf, from Augustine to Darwin, the Federalist Papers to H. Ryder Haggard and Anthony Hope, Chaucer and Sandburg, Wells (3 novels), Austin and Hardy (five novels apiece), Melville and Hugo (yes, the entire Moby Dick and Les Miserables), and don't forget Buchan and Bunyan, Cleland and Gay, Saki and Stevenson, Carroll and Conrad -- help! somebody stop me!
So I'll leave you there. If you do some gophering on this server, I'll bet you'll have a hard time leaving before your next meal.
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