Replying to Avatar Undisciplined

Those incentives weren't exogenous, though. They emerged in an environment of competing for eyeballs.

If anything was artificial, wouldn't it be the civility that existed when there were only three channels? That lack of competition was entirely due to broadcast licensing and pretty strict content censorship.

As we've gotten more voices to choose from, we've (obviously not you and I specifically) chosen more toxic options.
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boston wine 2y ago

I think the toxic structure specifically was artificial, because it became clear - over time - that to generate the most ad revenue, a platform needed to manipulate their users.

If platforms and content creators can instead earn money directly from users, who willingly send sats for content they actually want, it completely turns the old incentive structure on its head.

That’s how I’m envisioning this, at least, and I believe that this prospect is one of the reasons people are so excited about using, growing, and building on nostr 🤙

Thank you btw, I really appreciate thought-provoking conversation 🤝

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Undisciplined 2y ago

I'm starting to feel more optimistic about this, at least in the near and medium term.

We've been talking about the same thing at Stacker News (https://stacker.news/r/Undisciplined) and I'm realizing that our first-mover advantage might let us set an enduring culture.

If people come to nostr and their partisan shitposting falls on deaf ears, they might conform with our civil discourse or they might just leave.

It's on us, then, to engage with good content and maintain this culture that we all seem to appreciate.

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boston wine 2y ago

Absolutely! I think it might have been fiatjaf who said on a podcast recently that it’s a very good thing that nostr is still small. If a huge company came in now, it would have a massive impact on the content and culture. This needs to be a grassroots growth model until it’s big enough for the positive/“good” components to become deeply engrained in the protocol. Bullish 😉