it was a different URL every time for reply girl, hosted on a public blossom server with a random hash
the recent spammer could do the same by just changing one byte of its media randomly every time before publishing
Discussion
And yet, developers of many clients simply told their users: “Add this string to your mute list.” Users complied—and the spam disappeared. Even though the spam used different URLs hosted on public Blossom servers with random hashes, the mute word still worked.
Mute words remain an extremely effective anti-spam tool on Nostr. In fact, they’re the only method that has consistently worked against every spam wave we've encountered.
the spam has only disappeared because the spammer decided to stop
he even came public and said so
he said he only wanted to help test nostr's anti-spam
Oh no, that was long before the spammer decided to stop. But you've already made up your mind against word muting. You don’t need to take my word for it—just check the posts from that time.
If you want to keep pursuing sophisticated anti-spam strategies, go ahead. Just remember: sometimes simple solutions are the most effective. And don’t chase theoretical “optimal” solutions that end up useless because they’re too complex for the average user to apply.
Occam’s razor still applies. Look at what works in practice.