thanks for responding. :)

so... has a change been made in the way i would activate the gzip process between the stable and mainline versions?
in nginx.conf?

this is the list of options i was successfully using in stable (built through trial and error):
gzip on;
gzip_http_version 1.0;
gzip_comp_level 6;
gzip_proxied any;
gzip_min_length 100;
gzip_buffers 16 8k;
gzip_types text/plain text/css application/x-javascript application/json text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
gzip_disable "msie6";
gzip_vary on;

any other thoughts on why gzip would appear to not be functioning for me here?