Nostr Web Client

I can't stop thinking about "relay injection".

Scenario:

- I have 4 relays I write to and read from and this forms my overall nostr feed both globally and locally.

- A conference in, say, Amsterdam (call it AmConf) starts up and a nostrich launches a relay just for that conference that I can read from but NOT write to. Only conference attendees/staff etc. can write to that relay.

- I delete one of my 4 existing relays and subscribe to the AmConf relay.

- My entire experience is "re-flavored" because 25% of my relay intake (read) is now from a completely different AND fully themed source (most notes are going to be about the conference since what I'm getting from that relay can only be written by people attending the AmConf).

Am I just getting this whole thing wrong? If I am not then nostr is doing something natively (read this as an 'emergent property') that nothing else does. I started thinking that I should have seen this property in the Fediverse but I never noticed it there. Maybe because most servers are longer lived than nostrasia.nostr1.com (the #nostrasia relay that will be going away now that the unconference is over).

Maybe I'm reading way more into this than I should but I don't think so. I think this is an obscenely overlooked emergent property that adds a vibrancy to the experience that nothing else can. Unless, of course, I have this whole thing wrong and if I do I hope someone tells me.

nostr:npub1xtscya34g58tk0z605fvr788k263gsu6cy9x0mhnm87echrgufzsevkk5s

nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft

nostr:npub1lunaq893u4hmtpvqxpk8hfmtkqmm7ggutdtnc4hyuux2skr4ttcqr827lj

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Discussion

nobody 2y ago

Why delete a relay?

nobody 2y ago

I think someone could quibble with you over whether it would make exactly a 25% difference 🤣

But I think you’re far from getting everything wrong. I expect we will see more of this exact thing in the future. Purposed relays and short lived relays will expand as the tooling gets better. I think relays choice will become a very big part of how we shape experiences on nostr in the future.

bu5hm4nn 2y ago

You can have way more than 4 relays.

Initially you don’t even see any of the AmConf relays messages unless you look at their global feed or you subscribe to people writing there.

The AmConf relay cannot fake any of the messages of the users there as they are all signed with the respective users pubkey. It could only withhold messages.

What you see in your feed depends on who you follow (or what feed algorithms you choose in the future). If you use a client that has something like gossip’s relay picker then it will make sure you have at least 2 or 3 relays for everyone you are following.

. 2y ago

Yes, there are many interesting use cases for spinning up a temporary closed relay.

hodlbod 2y ago

This. But I think the effect is not as strong as it someday will be because of how relays and clients operate. I'm not sure how we can cultivate this more, but I definitely want to.

mleku 2y ago

the way it will work with nostr is simply that such relays will be used to find their type of content is all. this will also serve to restrict their userbase to those who are not interested.

the discussion is no different when it comes to paid relays either. they will specialise in caching the content requested by paid users.

nostr relays cannot be all things for all people without falling into the silo tar pit trap.

the logic of choosing, caching, and broadcasting content has a lot more work to be done in order to distribute the load effectively.

i've done hosting of various kinds of things for decades and the cost of doing it can grow very fast. solutions will be found, and people who try to pretend there is no problem, until they can't pay their hosting anymore, and then panic and dump content indiscriminately will let down the users as well.

Ronin 2y ago

I think some clients have feeds from specific relays, I think this would be more effective, i don't think that one can do a list of specific relays but it would be a nice idea.