Replying to Avatar ابو مريم

Nostr rant: #asknostr

Can someone explain to me how PRIVATE group chats or communities are supposed to work on nostr?

I have been experimenting in this space for nearly 6 months now and devs have done wonders on building the public side of this. But private is where customer trust is built! That is what the average user is coming for and what they are expecting.

What's the barrier here?

Is running your own relay the only way to do this? The average pleb is never going to be able to do that successfully so I'm not sure how this approach can ever scale to meet mass adoption needed to support communities.

This is probably the most important element needed to bring creators into nostr. Am I missing something or why has this not been a priority?
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hodlbod 7mo ago

Whitenoise by nostr:nprofile1qyfhwumn8ghj7ur4wfcxcetsv9njuetn9uq3jamnwvaz7tmswfjk66t4d5h8qunfd4skctnwv46z7qgewaehxw309aex2mrp0yh8xmn0wf6zuum0vd5kzmp0qy3hwumn8ghj7enfd36x2u3wdehhxarj9emkjmn98ankcmmzv9kr6ctvdshsz9nhwden5te0wfjkccte9e4x2enxvuhxv7tf9uqzq9eemymaerqvwdc25f6ctyuvzx0zt3qld3zp5hf5cmfc2qlrzdh0t6lycm uses strong encryption for privacy within groups. Currently kind of a signal alternative but it could scale to larger groups. However, there is always a social trade off to be aware of. The larger the group, the less trust exists within the group, and the less consequential privacy on the technical level is.

I also think that the relay requirement is an acceptable trade off, since large groups are usually going to have a sufficiently committed admin that will be motivated to run a relay, while smaller groups can thrive in a more informal encryption-supported scenario. The relay requirement may actually be a beneficial barrier to entry that discourages insufficiently motivated would-be community organizers from starting.

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ابو مريم 7mo ago

Will check out Whitenoise. Saw it shared around but haven't tested it yet.

I like the relay model and from my experience with it, it has worked best. Flotilla being the prime example.

The accessability issue though is a problem as that is a serious barrier to entry. Wven for the motivated there is cost (cloud host vs run your own hardward) and technical learning involved. I'd like to assume anyone that has been on nostr for a while is motivated and commited to this protocol but I'm not sure how the cost and technical barrier scales to that user. And we should have that user in mind when building nostr. Religous/non-profit boards, social activist groups/organizers, the coveted "influencer" communities - these will expect both privacy and trus. These are the users I'm thinking of and we need low cost and low technical entry for this to scale to bring them.