Where do the meaningful conversations happen? Half a year ago, I often had the feeling, I could jump right into a conversation from my Damus home screen. Not anymore.
The last month has been particularly bad (purple line) for new user retention. I dont the the cause, but possible reasons are the Colorado attack, shift to outbox model or addition of web of trust. Or it could be https://stats.nostr.band/
Discussion
I hadn't been able to put my finger on what was different lately, but I think you just did. There used to be a lot more meaningful discussion amongst a wide array of people, like a big brainstorming session. Maybe that was a phase destined to pass, but it was fun.
There are fewer people here, now, who just "hang out". I was just complaining about how lonely it can be on here, now. People used to post stuff and wait for a reply, so there was this long interchange and other people could join in.
But then Primal brought the trending list and all the influencers showed up, and now it's just one person saying something into a megaphone to his groupies, and then walking off the stage, leaving the groupies standing around, discussing how much they admire him. Or people don't look at threads. They just doomscroll the OPs. But OPs aren't discussions, unless they're air-replies over a small relay (which is cool š¤©, the Japanese do that).
And because the big relays are really spammy/gross, and the clients discourage active relay management, everyone just looks at their follows, now, so it's getting harder to meet new people or to simply stumble across an interesting conversation.
Communities and forums would change that, but everyone just builds Twitter 2.0, so most of the conversationalists have moved to other venues. I'm one of the last holdouts, but my frens mostly come here, to keep me company, and not because they wouldn't rather chat in SimpleX group, Discord, GitHub, or whatnot.
I still donāt know who these people are, I only ever click the āhitā tab on Nostur if Iām super bored.
Most people only look at the trending list, now, so it's become increasingly difficult for a normal user to start a conversation.
IDK if randomly jumping into a thread Iām not a part of is cool, but being new to the platform I searched relay and this was one of the results and itās so interesting! It prompted me to think about how itās kinda strange/ironic how little connecting with new people, building relationships and being social has become on social media - at least in my own experience.
But it also presents the opportunity to do something different if that experience applies to a lot of people and not just me. If social media is the main way people get, view or interact with information, then any sort of expert in a certain field is helpful, but we also donāt want to create a ādigital caste systemā with social media that kinda reminds me of that 2016 Black Mirror episode āNosediveā.
Anyways - thanks for sharing your thoughts unfiltered it was quite refreshing to read!