I have yet to see any developer propose, or any user ask, a way to see if someone is online on Nostr right now. Or if a DM has been read. This explains quite well how some "features" in big corp's services are injected from the top down, made normal with dependency mechanisms, all following a private, strategic agenda that returns very little value to the user.
Nostr is different; we build it, permissionless, and decide what matters.
there was the whole online/last seen discussion during the summer between me and nostr:npub1504jj42t6flu5l6n7e389e9mt8gxduhnzuyv7dq4gr95w20mmpqscx0cg0 and whether we should or shouldn't have it
The “should” discussion is a bit silly, I’d rather see people figure out ways to make it impossible to reveal last seen, but so far I have seen no solutions.
I think nobody wants this revealed by default but it’s part of how nostr works. Pretending it doesn’t exist by hiding it seems worse to me because people will think that information isn’t out there when it is.
Note that it isn’t a lost cause with nostr. Just opening a client, scrolling and closing won’t reveal “Last seen”, it is the moment you interact with nostr that you reveal that information. This means when you post something, or like a post, it is revealed, but I think people expect that. Where there can be improvement is with other actions, like adding a bookmark or adding a mute, people don’t expect this to be a public action, but many clients store this in a list signed with your pubkey so it reveals your Last seen.
I agree.
Note that I was not talking about "Last seen", but the classic (realtime green dot) online status. And just speculating about the fact that, spontaneously, nostr community is not focused on this matter, contrary to other contexts, where probably has been imposed.
