Relays collect the posts people make, and distribute them to people who request them. They can have different purposes, for example nostr.band is usually only used for search.
Relays sometimes go down temporarily and you'll get an error or the 12/19 thing. Or they are paid relays which require a membership fee to post to.
I'd remove the inactive if they never connect.
Ok then. When I remove them do they repopulate with new ones or do I have to find new relays myself?
Thanks for the response btw.
They generally don't repopulate automatically, and if they did it would be something your client decided to do, not a global Nostr feature.
You have to have at least one relay to use Nostr. Most have roughly half a dozen to a dozen to ensure access to more posts, and more exposure for their own.
Here are some that might be worth checking out:
wss://relay.damus.io
wss://nos.lol
wss://relay.snort.social
wss://nostr1.current.fyi
wss://nostr-pub.wellorder.net
wss://relay.nostr.bg
wss://nostr.mom
wss://relay.plebstr.com
wss://offchain.pub
wss://nostr.bitcoiner.social
wss://spore.ws
wss://nostr21.com
wss://nostr.oxtr.dev
wss://nostr.bongbong.com
wss://relay.primal.net
wss://nostr.zbd.gg
wss://nostr-relay.nokotaro.com
wss://relayable.org
wss://public.relaying.io
