This kind of thing wonāt stop me from using and building on Nostr but it will drive a lot of people away.
Discussion
Keep doing what you're doing
its a good thing mute exists.
Actually, this is exactly why Nostr will win. Because people like this can put out their text messages and we don't have to see them unless we choose to see them.
Thanks for pointing out the profiles that we want to mute, nostr:npub1wmr34t36fy03m8hvgl96zl3znndyzyaqhwmwdtshwmtkg03fetaqhjg240
nostr:npub1murdy8k20svu38g9f9jt9k0rqkjzt677x3qrev88je4gw2erqk8scwcnel the thing is I think we need more controls. Ideally Nostr clients wouldnāt display content as replies from people they muttered and reported. I know this is a controversial position, but the way I see it being a reply guy in my threads is like coming in to my personal space when I donāt want it. Just like we can kick out a rude houseguest, they arenāt banished from the town, just my small part of it.
I want nostr to be a space for queer Palestinian drag queens like nostr:npub1lq9lx5mh2m3pvdnckcta7h7h07qexa3gxvyakdzt73lqp3prt3jqx9pa2e who are being shadow banned and deplatformed by Meta and Instagram. I want nostr to be a space for activists who face state surveillance and repression.
And Iām fine with there being people on nostr who hate me, so long as I donāt have listen to them or have them inject themselves in to my content and conversations.
Controls that would do what you're asking for are called algorithms. They could be built into a single client, but I wouldn't want them to be built into the protocol layer. Seeing something I don't like in a conversation thread is unavoidable, because no matter how much we would wish that all humans are reasonable and caring individuals that we would enjoy interacting with, it's never going to be true. The only way to build a feed that makes us happy is to be able to see the wall that protects that feed, and that means we have to see the ugly to recognize it and have simple solutions in place to deal with it.
The way I understand things, and please correct me if I'm wrong, there are two ways to build a wall.
Mute, which prevents anything from a profile from showing up in our feed.
Block, which mutes and also prevents anything from our profile from showing up on their feed.
We should be able to control the wall. If anyone or anything else controls what we see, we're no different than any of the corporate platforms, allowing others to control our feed. That's my concern.
How about opt-in crowd-sourced mute/block lists that can be shared between friends? Imagine if an abusive person was constantly having to request to be unmuted/unblocked by individuals who used a popular mute/block list. Social shaming is more effective when it comes from the community rather than an authority. They might actually change their behavior.
That's good thinking, but again that should be at a client level, not the protocol level. If a particular community want to develop an app based on the idea that they know best who their members should or should not see, they can build and maintain it. We don't need and I don't think most of us would want to give up that control.
However, that does identify a need for private groups, where a specific set of people can speak freely on specific topics without being exposed to the rest of the world. One of the biggest drivers of growth for Facebook and Twitter was the difference in how they handled privacy. On Twitter, now X, everything is public. But Facebook created private groups where people could organize and actually conduct business, making decisions with internal consensus rules or governance that worked for them. This is a separate topic than Mute or Block, but it is a critical piece of how socialedia has evolved over the last few decades that Nostr needs to catch up with. Even X is trying communities, although they seem to be crap like everything else on there.
"how social media has evolved"...
Iām super grateful to have your strong voice as part of the #nostr community @Rabble - youāve inspired this #nostriche to not self-censor.
Global adoption = not censoring speech š
Global adoption and free speech are fundamental principles. While itās natural to disagree and engage in intellectual debates over ideas and direction, resorting to hostility is unproductive and reminiscent of schoolyard behavior. If all we seek is a "box of screams", we might as well return to centralized systems.
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Imagine the real life of people who behave like that. There's a reason they're incel
On #nostr at least this bs is not amplified
To be honest this happens in real life too. Twice in the last few months Iāve had people come on to the deck at my house to steal my pride flag and flag pole.
I donāt really care if youāve got bigoted ideas but Iām not so keen on threats of violence, theft, and damaging my home. The thing is the things said online donāt stay there and often what starts as a joke becomes real violence.
Sorry to hear that. Seems the haters found this thread too... my block list is a lot longer now š
Ultimately, its all just noise.
People like them need nostr more than any other since they've most likely alienated everyone in their actual lives.
I pity them, really.
Well the sad part is the most homophobic people are driven by self hatred of their own queerness.
Maybe I'm weird but this isn't any more triggering to me than the average xitter post.
The difference is I have control in a way that means I never see these people in my feed. Most other socials keep pushing the algo no matter what I said to block.
It's ok. Those people are probably happy on x. They can come here when they realize that the benefits of not being called a slur are tiny compared to the costs of being owned by Elon.
š«”š
agreed. I gave up on trying to understand the extreme vitriol by some and just hope maturity comes with age and experience
Fighting š«”
Thatās why I said this today: āNostr doesn't offer a solution for everything, but it makes a difference when it comes to censorship. The community is still small and the climate is pleasant - hostility is rare. Enjoy your time on Nostr while it's still an "insider tip" before the masses of X come along.ā
Today, this thread is a rarityābut unfortunately, probably not for long.
Maybe with time we can find more solutions. I donāt see why some relays shouldnāt have more control for the individual. Sorry to hear this Rabble, intolerance wonāt help to evolve humanity or make them any better people
It takes two to tango. I read a thread today that was disappointing shall we say, but you know, nostr zen just leads you to the unfollow button and they have one less in their audience.
Yeah haters everywhere, sorry your a target
"With such a blind and naĆÆve moralising approach, the whole vast storehouse of spiritual culture is devastated and its treasures detonated, all the creative spiritual charge of the human spirit turns out to be condemned and forbidden. Religiously drained, ridiculed and relegated; cognitively exhausted and blinded; artistically limited and enslaved; deprived of rights, defence and homeland, a man remains to the end of this anti-spiritual cyclone a miserable creature of one moral dimension, whose highest calling is self-compulsion to a helplessly sentimental mercy. A sentimental moralist knows only one dimension of perfection - the moral; the whole essence of the spirit, the whole life of the spirit is reduced to moral self-improvement; and all moral achievement for him boils down to the satiation of the soul with pitiful compassion. And as a result, all understanding of man, good and evil becomes shallow, flat and decadent"
Yeah these are what I would call absolute bellends.
The mad thing is them not realising how much their brains have been mangled by US government propaganda since birth. Anyone any different to them is a commie red hiding under the bed. Itās not the 1950s anymore.
Anyway, youāre cool as far as Iām concerned.
It is so annoying.
not everyone understands what an open protocol means.
Itās what free speech looks like, whether you like it or not.
The ābut it will drive a lot of people awayā is where attacks on free speech start.
Never trust what the jew says
Iām disgusted hopefully we can block
Hereās more, and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I appreciate you speaking up on this and your commitment to reason, inclusion and zeitgeist on Nostr. The important # are full of it. 
Wow - no home training, no travelling, no understanding of self or life leads to this sort of small minded nastiness.
Makes me a bit sad to these fools on #nostr but itās free and open and I must remember that. I use mute liberally. Many on this thread just got Sparta kicked back into their abyss of loneliness and hatred.
good. I don't want people here who believe in freedom of speech for themselves but not for others
Nostr is Future and nothing more
Everyone has the Chance to use
But they have to use this
Rough.
Lots of muting is probably a long term requirement to keep Nostr chill