I’m referring to the internet that most people would be thinking about: websites that you access with a browser over http or https. Are there any alternative protocols or internet equivalents that are not well known and have an active community?
Gemini was/is a big one from relatively recently. Don't see too many articles about it lately, possibly the traction it was getting is subsiding ...
Active community, maybe not, but teletext[1] and minitel[2] come to mind. Maybe also WAP[3]<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext</a><p>[2] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel</a><p>[3] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Application_Protocol" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_Application_Protocol</a>
There's a few abstractions of the web you can use today.<p><a href="https://freenetproject.org/" rel="nofollow">https://freenetproject.org/</a><p><a href="https://geti2p.net/en/" rel="nofollow">https://geti2p.net/en/</a><p><a href="https://www.gnunet.org/en/" rel="nofollow">https://www.gnunet.org/en/</a><p><a href="https://www.ipfs.tech/" rel="nofollow">https://www.ipfs.tech/</a>
This only works in the loosest of senses for an analog to HTTP - certainly the way they're used, but some BBSes have modem connectivity.<p><a href="https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/bbs/connection/dial-up/" rel="nofollow">https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/bbs/connection/dial-up/</a>
amateur radio [4] and Tor browser.<p>[4] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amateur_radio_modes" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_amateur_radio_modes</a>