what a confusing day it was ... aren't we here for freedom, for creating freedom tech, for supporting devs working on freedom tech? ... because what has this "top zapper" thing/hype to do with freedom? or the algo or the wallet #primal is using?
just asking, maybe i missed something, maybe we do twitter tech now, which is ok too ... it just would be nice, if there's a memo from the owners of #nostr about what the future agenda will be, is freedom still a thing here?
Gotta keep the plebs happy. I'm not spending any more time on zaps than I need to, but UX is critical to making the freedom tech work.
I see Top Zapper as an enticement for Zaps to help spread Zaps and to highlight that Zaps are the signal on Nostr. Remember, Damus had something similar, briefly, before Apple nuked Zaps. Top Zaps replies or comments were brought up to the top of a note thread I believe? Anyways, anything that developers can do from a user experience standpoint to make Zaps better or more front and center seems like a positive for me. Hopefully it promotes more Zapping as Zaps themselves have been slowing down.
more zaps 🤝 more freedom
I guess the timing of it is not the best, right after the samourai wallet news 🤷🏾♂️
Yeah I’m not as exited about the top zaps as a lot of people seem to be either. I too see it as kind of counterintuitive to the collective integrity and morals surrounding nostr. I’m happy for those who enjoy it though 🤦♀️
⚡️are freedom 
People will probably fall into 2 camps here:
1. Zaps are great, and are the signal / what makes nostr work with v4v
2. Payments and social may send mixed signals, ego stroking etc... so payments should not be emphasized.
I see that Primal has positioned itself as a social bitcoin wallet vs. a nostr client with a bitcoin wallet. So, I think from that angle, it makes sense to push hard ton zaps / seamless wallet integration etc. It's more about highlightning bitcoin than nostr, though both play well together.
Personally, I got one foot in each camp. I feel like if you position your client as bitcoin-centric, then by all means, lean into it. But if you wish to lean into the nostr aspects and not care as much about payments, by all means don't emphasize payments.
I don't know which is better positioning - but I suspect the vast majority of people out there don't care as much about zaps as we think they might. I suspect that we have created a bubble for ourselves in thinking that zaps are the winning feature, when in reality people likely don't care.
This is not to say that I don't like zaps or I'm not optimistic about v4v micro payments. I would like for all of it to work.
The beauty of nostr and the fact that it's so early, is that we can test all of these things and see what sticks. Personally, I would love to see a nostr client that has zero bitcoin features, and leans into fiat subs instead. I suspect that this client will gain more broader appeal, especially if it does a great job delivering non-bitcoin content to new users.
I think one of the problems we are not acknowledging currently in Nostr is the lack of content variety, and there's a lot of focus on everything else BUT the problem that makes nostr not sticky. You join, you see nothing but bitcoin talk, you leave. I'd like to see clients push for content creation / surfacing features.
Here is the two camps I'll predict (might even include a fork)
nostr the business
nostr the freedom protocol
You can’t have nostr the freedom protocol without nostr the business. This is the real world not la la land
Nostr businesses are going to through many iterations of what doesn’t work and what works slightly better.
A good amount of people may not have been around during the shitcoin that was early internet businesses.
Did you know Netscape used to charge for their browser until Microsoft undercut them?
Did you know Netscape before it finally died tried to bundle an email client and IRC client with the browser?
Does anyone remember the hit the money win a prize.
I mean a lot of this pales in comparison to the ad driven monocultural internet we kind of have now (mostly the web but internet at large).
Let’s not go there but let’s also experiment. Some things are going to be shit. Paying for 700 subscriptions to maintain Nostr like streaming services may not be the most optimal but let’s experiment, give feedback, iterate.
…What was the question?
zaps are great but they should be anonymous. Displaying the amounts isn't a great idea either. OPSEC.
Some clients support anon and private zaps
My 10p worth, one of the best features of nostr is its freedom and marketplace of ideas. Run a rely how ever you like. If people want those features they will connect to it, if they dont they wont.
Having a wide diverse (in a good honest way) range of experiences is the best selling point for nostr. The downside to that is as nostr grows echo chambers will form.
We shoukd accept that balance.
Nostr and Bitcoin are becoming a business. Nothing new here. Any “development” is made to make $.
Most of the “Bitcoin” influencers still have their blue check mark.
I feel a better use of the space would be to summarize the gifted zaps in all the collapsed replies somehow. Ur post has 7 great replies, it would be more interesting to see, adding onto your post’s total zaps, the transaction dynamic of giving within the replies when the mere exposure effect is at play (more givers/giving ui = you more giving..?)
Algos are easy, trending & most zaps will be easily gamed. Its neat to see them but ultimately they are just for comfort.
Hopefully we will start being creative rather than copy what’s already out there
Funny how things change. Last year top zappers were manually shadow banned. today the social Bitcoin wallet brings it back.
X wants to be the "everything app"
Nostr seems conflicted about being the techBro app or an alternate to TikTok
I want to see celebrity gossip and politics on here, you probably just want to discuss nodes and relays and buying sats coffee in El Salvador
If nostr is decentralized, we need to horizontal platforms so the tiktokers, the gossip gals and the devs can each go their own way
The owner of Nostr says go fuck yourself, but the users can fund any developments they like around the protocol.
