Nostr Web Client

I’m not convinced any single platform will eclipse Twitter at its peak (for intellectual/issues discussions), but I think that’s a good thing.

Forums were always topic focused - you could get together with other folks interested in the same thing as you and chat.

Communities should be communities, not one huge pot where everyone’s shoved together - that’s just a recipe for people to dunk on each other instead of actually sharing ideas. Short posts in social-media-byte-sized takes don’t convince anyone of anything, you need a primed audience and long form posts.

Not having An Algorithm helps - you follow who you want to see and create your own community, but that leaves something lacking - missing a broader narrative.

Reddit tried it with subreddits, but the format wasn’t conducive to great discussion either.

With Telegram (and discord) we’ve seen a return to small communities (via Group Chats, which I’m told are especially popular with The Youths).

nostr/mastodon have strongly self-selected for certain communities, and to some extent those still active on Twitter have as well.

I dunno the future or what to do with it, but there seems to be a real trend towards smaller communities, it means more groupthink but also much more relaxed environment where ideas can be shared with less friction.

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𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙷𝙸𝚃𝙴 𝚁𝙰𝙱𝙱𝙸𝚃™ ®© 2y ago

Reflections on Twitter vs Nostr after #MarchOffTwitter

Free Speech — The feeling of not having anyone, with the power to suspend or ban you, looking over your shoulder while you post is liberating. Free speech exists on Nostr. It does not fully exist on Twitter (yet).

Incentives — The incentives to post on Nostr are far greater than those on Twitter. You earn Bitcoin directly for quality content. This is game-changing and hard to overstate.

Algorithm — There is no algo on Nostr. You simply see the posts of those you follow in chronological order. Don’t like what someone’s posting? Unfollow. It’s that simple. No ads or algo suggested posts either. Just pura vida.

Ownership — On Nostr, you truly own your account. You own your posts. And you can contribute to the protocol and apps just like everyone else. No more tagging Elon for every qualm you have with the user experience. This is incredibly refreshing and leads to a feeling of personal responsibility.

Tone — Broadly speaking, the tone of voice on Nostr is authentic, whereas the tone of Twitter is snarky. It’s nice not to be inundated with sarcasm. People sound happy and optimistic on Nostr, whereas on Twitter everyone sounds like they’re complaining.

Technical competence — The typical Nostrich is far more tech savvy than the typical Twitter user. You can get better answers to technical questions on Nostr than anywhere else I’ve tried.

Scammers — You won’t find many scammers on Nostr. And if you do, they won’t have much of a following. The reason is that you cannot delete posts, and you cannot block someone from commenting on your posts. There is nowhere to hide if you try to scam people on Nostr. You’ll be found out immediately. On Twitter, scammers easily hide behind a multitude of blocks and deleted posts.

Building the future — On Nostr, we’ve moved beyond tired olde arguments of “Bitcoin vs fiat” and “Bitcoin vs scamcoin.” Instead, we are actively building towards the future on a Bitcoin / LN / Nostr standard. No need to post the “it’s all so tiresome” meme.

Scale — Today, Twitter still has far more scale than Nostr. Twitter is the primary battleground of ideas. And Twitter has more far-reaching news and information. Therefore, in order to stay tapped in to the broader consciousness collective, and to wake people up to the perils of fiat and the benefits of Bitcoin, it still makes sense to have a presence on Twitter. Over time, however, Nostr will grow to far grander scale than any centralized social media platform due to its free, open source nature.

Connection — Nostr connects freedom minded individuals in China, America, and everywhere else in the world. No firewall can stop people from accessing Nostr. By comparison, every centralized social media app has to abide by authoritarian laws in each respective country. Nostr is connecting the world, and it’s not asking permission in order to do so.

In sum, I’ll to continue to have a presence on Twitter, but will be primarily posting to Nostr, as I believe it is the future of global, permissionless communications.

𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙷𝙸𝚃𝙴 𝚁𝙰𝙱𝙱𝙸𝚃™ ®© 2y ago

#[3] Wrote the above btw, you should take a look into his work 🙌

Zoe 2y ago

LOVE this!!

Mike Brock 2y ago

Agree. I also generally think the constant competition for clout on these large platforms has been pretty socially unhealthy for everyone.

Matt Corallo 2y ago

Yea, not just better for conversation but better for everyone’s mental health.

LibertyBTC 2y ago

Especially when they're bought out by Goobernment Psyops...

nobody 2y ago

All solid points by Matt regarding platforms. I hope the next generation of these tools prioritizes the focus on individual connections with the optionality to meet one on one or in groups easier. The noise is unbearable and with tools generating fake images, remote social consequences is much more important than when I thought about this all the time.

My old friends at tendigi in nyc threw out a proof of concept many years ago partly based on my work that can be checked out on the link below. They decided to focus solely on dating, my thoughts were a bit more broad.

https://technical.ly/uncategorized/tendigi-dating-app-fever/

If anyone wants to read my full notes (long), I’ll dig them up. I haven’t written code in years, no desire to do so anymore.

berto 2y ago

Love to see you sharing more on nostr these days! It is greatly appreciated since I’ve deleted twitter 🙏

LibertyBTC 2y ago

You can say the same about lunch meat at Safeway, whipped cream at Walmart.

steepdawn974 2y ago

Arguably this concentration made it be biggest shaper of public opinion in world history - and the perfect wedge for the various (likely PsyOps) campaigns that drove societies apart in the last 5-10 years.

We have to destroy this monopoly for our own good.

Make Public Discourse Fragmented Again!

jack 2y ago

Not sure. I do think there’s room and need for an actual global public square. It can only exist in a protocol context. It’s just going to take a while to get there.

Wolf Spraul 2y ago

A global public square will be an experience controlled by media and algorithms for most. So no, it was always an illusion. I'm looking forward to vibrant, healthy and inspiring local public squares, where ones own perception matters more than media.

Rish 2y ago

🤔

Matt Corallo 2y ago

I will always miss peak Twitter, but I’m not sure how much demand there is for such a platform today - as long as there are fragmented communities that feel much “friendlier” (because more folks think the same) people will prefer that. Maybe you can emulate that feeling with platform design, but that seems to have tradeoffs that make the virality of peak Twitter impossible/very rare.

I could just be over-indexing on today, but I also think a more decentralized Internet is good, and not just decentralized protocols, but many different platforms and protocols available to people.

(You might argue that there will be many platforms built on nostr, which is far, and insofar as they’re sufficiently siloed I think that would still be my point, even if they share a common backend)

J.T. Woodhouse 2y ago

The friendly enclosed communities you’re referring to are called echo chambers.

J.T. Woodhouse 2y ago

I didn’t mean that as barbed as it sounds. We just need a place where ideas can battle and sharpen.

Matt Corallo 2y ago

It is an echo chamber! But it’s a hell of a lot better than somewhere where you’re constantly “doing battle”. And let’s be honest, if you’re always “doing battle” rather than learning, Twitter is also an echo chamber.

elidy 2y ago

Much room for improvement on global/universe feed & search that could give a wider perspective by topics….

Daniele 2y ago

Foundamentally agree.

I see nostr as a a way to build all that from ground up, with a protocol and tools that can handle forums, group chats, one-to-one chats and also longer multi-media articles.

And last but not least, a single interface where to discover and interact.

aidan 2y ago

Agreed. I’m not sure there ever was a true public square, at least not in the way that modern platforms refer to it. Public squares were for the minority whom felt the need to publicize something. The majority have always been those who simply used it as a kind of schelling point to head to a bar or coffee shop to speak freely with those that they trusted.