The filter based on your contacts really dampens the network effect. The first thing I did was to add the local operator hotline numbers that many people have in their contacts and that's where the most offers come from. At least here in Czechia. It could be a ghost town where you are.
Discussion
thanks for the hot tip, I will give it another go, maybe write a guide on it, if i figure it out lol
Done this with the first version of vexl.
There is one disadvantage of this approach - ask for credibility of the other side if you are connected through some "helpdesk" phone number.
The idea you only see what friends and friends of your friends post is quite a radical one if you're trying to grow the network. Yes it probably works well if many of your friends are cypherpunks or if you get onboarded at a meetup where a lot of people know other nostr:npub1mftv2j67vayavkks8rqev3u8jjhefe86tf80msstfxvpunk9vmps6prkl3 users. But for someone who doesn't have an easy way to get these contact it's a dead end. So of course we use hacks like the helpdesk phone nr. But how many would be vexl users just gave up because their experience is an empty offers screen?
I still think the vexl app should show you everything and let you know who is a friend, who is a friend of a friend and who is not related to your contacts at all. And you decide what risks (not) to take, not the app.
Phone nr contacts are also a bit problematic, I don't want to share my nr on nostr. But perhaps if vexl (also) used npubs as contacts, that would help with the network effect. With npubs also comes the zapping address, post history... what's not to like?
I am extreme introvert, almost no friends where I am living. I just used some phone numbers of the signal contact I have interacted mostly in signal groups.
Yes I still see minimum offers in vexl and people mostly do not respond.
Signal is my more successfull "vexl" app.
If you want something good, you have to work for it like anything you can’t just expect a marketplace to be full overnight. The fact is Vexl is growing and it’s growing quickly.
Every marketplace was empty when I first started, and yeah, it does take time to build it, but I understand your argument about how you think that you don’t have friends, but this is not how Vexl works.
Someone doesn’t need to be a Bitcoiner to be part of your trusted social graph .
For example, if you and I happen to have the same cleaning lady or dog walker and they aren’t on Vexl, we can still leverage our trust in her to do a trade.
Of course this takes time but if you want something, you have to build it. You have to tell other people about it and you have to be patient. Create an offer in your network if you want to buy if you wanna sell post an offer there and then just keep telling people it will grow gradually than suddenly.
I know the philosophy, it's only up to vexl to decide how they want their system to work.
I have no idea how big vexl is outside of "czechoslovakia", what I see here through the "helpdesk hack" is reasonably useful amount of activity.
At the same time if I installed vexl and didn't see any offers at all, eventually I'd uninstall the app after a few tries.