I decided to go back and improve foundational tech instead of incrementally adding features. it may look line “deprioritizing development” but only if you think development means adding badges and gif keyboards.
Discussion
In the past year we have created the fastest embedded nostr relay/db which powers our note opengraph previews, android/notedeck, ios profile and note search. This tech will enable damus to have note stats without relying on centralized services like other clients. Soon it will enable a completely offline and speedy experience on ios. We pioneered image blurhashes and image metadata so damus and other clients don’t have a janky feed when scrolling. We added the limit feature to nostr queries so that you don’t have to pull down thousands of notes when querying. We added zaps, reactions and reposts. We added command results so notes can actually be saved to relays reliably. The reason you can even load nostr notes on your phone is likely due to the optimizations we have made to the protocol and will continue to do so. But sure, knock us because we don’t have a gif keyboard.
low time preference. I like it.
So how about that gif keyboard then
I really admire your software design sensibilities and priorities. I also think it’s smart that you still try to do things you think are fun and interesting
And I’ve been here for just over a year watching you create all of those things. That is what captured me when I joined Nostr and why I’m still here.
I feel very privileged watching creators create. I love seeing the collaboration that occurs - the openness, the sharing of knowledge and skill sets.
I’m loving the Damus/Nostr rabbit hole into which I stumbled. 😊😊
I can live without GIFs until you’re ready to travel that road.
My original post was t specifically about any specific client or person, but since Vanessa replied about Damus I decided to lean in. You and your team have done incredible things for Nostr. But where I used to exclusively use Damus, I now barely ever use it at all. Im not the only user either as I’ve heard that directly from several people. Does that not concern you? The constant app freezing and crashing, the terrible navigation between threads and replies, the failure to load users’ profile data, the failure to show which notes are being replied to, the god awful video player, and I can go on. The gif keyboard comment I make is an ongoing thing I like to bring it up because it’s such a simple fucking thing that every user wants and would use. It’s as basic as image uploads. When I started using Damus you seemed to care about some of these things that users actually needed, but now I don’t see that from Damus. The protocol level stuff you do is no doubt crucial so thank you for that. But Damus is hurting. Users post content and media and interact with each other, and Damus is not great for that.
Like I said the original post wasn’t about Damus. There are a lot of people on here with their heads up in the clouds about some imaginary level of Nostr adoption that will never happen if user needs are the priority, and it will probably look different than everyone imagines anyway. So it’s better to build onto what exists and give existing users what they need and ask for. Existing users know the end user experience here better than anyone.
