Nostr Web Client

My loose opinion (no data or facts to provide) is that Nostr is mostly a monoculture. If you deviate, you either become unpopular at worst, or just unnoticed at best. There are a handful of popular people from that monoculture who came here from Twitter and now dominate. If they don't boost you, you're probably going to have a very small sphere of influence.

I think this causes a feedback loop to makes it harder for Nostr to grow. Creatives who have little or nothing to do with this monoculture have little reason to come (who would they talk to), and so do the people who typically consume their creations by extension.

I think the long term success of Nostr will probably require some solution that is totally separate from the Bitcoin and Nostr communities. I don't have an answer for this since most of it's early adopters and builders come from Bitcoin and adjacent topics. It's kind of the same problem. How do you attract outside builders who want to build for people who care about more than Bitcoin and Nostr? Ideally, time will relegate these topics to the fringes since most people will use them and have no idea or interest in the tech. That's not the case now, so any other topic or person is bound to get less attention unless they post things that riles that community up. And then this is a negative incentive, in my opinion, which leads to toxicity and contributes to the aforementioned feedback loop.

I bet nostr:npub1r0rs5q2gk0e3dk3nlc7gnu378ec6cnlenqp8a3cjhyzu6f8k5sgs4sq9ac has thought about this to some degree.

HoloKat 2mo ago 💬 1

It’s hard to get noticed as a new user. Follow packs will help for sure! I just added them to jumblekat.

Part of the issue is pure numbers (low numbers of people here). It takes many people for a few to like and agree with some note. So you really need to post something agreeable for any decent amount of people to engage with. And since lesser know npub don’t have as many followers, this translate to practically 0 engagement.

More users will alleviate this issue, but also finding your tribe or inviting them here to start all together will be super helpful.

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Discussion

Matt 2mo ago 💬 1

Part of the low numbers is probably due to core ideological positions of the tech due to the bias of those who create it. I tend to agree with those positions, but most of society simply isn't there yet, which is why I'm softer on people who still choose to use other platforms even if I'm Nostr only.

Thinking back to when I chose to go onto Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (many moons ago 🤢🤮), I went because the platforms felt agnostic. It was just a place for all people to gather (before everything went crazy) around virtually any interest, topic, or relationship.

Nostr feels a lot less agnostic when you get here. You're basically water boarded with Bitcoin and Nostr. And you really have to work hard to find the stuff outside that, at least from what I remember as a noob coming into the popular clients. Maybe it's improved. I doubt it. Follow packs are one thing that give people hope that things will as far as onboarding goes. But even when I search out people in other communities (music, art, etc) those people are still typically hard tied to Nostr and Bitcoin. Other topics exist mostly on a technicality from what I've seen. I've tried onboarding normies and they have no interest.

I wish I could offer solutions to my perceived issues. But all I can come up with is we have to attract creators from outside our little echo chamber. It's a hard problem that will likely be solved with time. I've tried to get my favorite creators here and their concern usually is lack of an audience. I think pain is a great motivator, so I'm pushing hard when creators experience demonetization and things like that. They could simply cross post here and add a link and mention it in their other posts. I recently started selling the least effort approach to my people, but I'm just one dude.

inpc 2mo ago 💬 1

Reminds me of the Fediverse pre 2022, then Elno bought Twitter and all hell broke lose, well it got a lot busier anyway. Not sure that any single thing can fix it, just up to each person to keep posting their interests (especially if they’re not btc/nostr interests lol) Been here nearly 2 years and only now have reached the point where I can say ‘wow, 5 people have vaguely similar music tastes to me’.

However, I think the protocol remains interesting and if it takes folks another 5 years to work out Mark Zuckerberg is a bellend then so be it.

Probably a bit of a drag if you’re some big YouTube/Facebacon/Ex user.

Matt 2mo ago 💬 1

I agree. On the YouTube point, one of the creators I like recently got demonetized temporarily and he's big enough that he has an employee. It's completely fucked him and he's unsure of the future. Yet he isnt posting to even Rumble. I don't do that work, so I'm armchair quarterbacking, but why not at least give people a way to monetize you outside of YT? Especially when they turned the faucet off completely. Shit like this is totally self-inflicted at this point. I told him I would open a Rumble link or send sats if he added it to his videos. Mentioned Nostr too. Crickets. A lot of people aren't even trying to escape the bullshit. They just complain and then do nothing. I can't really fix that. But I see that issue a lot

inpc 2mo ago

Yeah that does sound troubling, I’m trying to think of other parallels in history… I can’t really. Building a following with one company like that makes you less than an employee of that company. At least employees have some sort of rights. The only option I think with YouTube is getting fully legal with them, not exactly easy for a 2 person outfit.

I’ve a couple of friends in that world and they think I’m the crazy one… well they have a point there but still, I don’t get why anyone would want to sing and dance for a big corp like that, especially how easily they can rug you.