Speaking of which, to #[3]​ – what’s your take on a social media protocol with no delete function?
Discussion
Is there a philosophy behind that?
Given current cultural dynamics, I think it would not be great at scale — I think most people when faced with an online mob would want the ability to delete a dumb post.
I think in smaller communities it’s fine, but i’m not sure I fully understand the reason why it’s appealing.
The primary philosophy is the decentralized nature of the protocol itself, IMO. Once you post something, several hundred copies of it exist on relays worldwide, making full deletion a near impossible task.
It does seem to have some interesting side effects, though. What we’ve observed anecdotally here over the past few months is that people tend to post more responsibly given that they have no place to hide.
It does seem like clients could be designed to facilitate a pseudo deletion though, basically just hiding the post, which I think would make a lot of sense.
That’s right, clients can offer that, although it would only work on that particular client. The post won’t be hidden on any other client that hasn’t implemented that feature
Those notes will still be archived on sites like nostr.band where anyone can find and repost them. So, unless there’s a true delete NIP added to the protocol that all relays implement, a delete button only offers false hope.
It’s twofold.
First, what #[5]​ said, and I’ve said in the past: No delete means taking personal responsibility for your public persona. It’s a good way to deter influencers, scammers, and racists from using it because they can’t go back and purge their timelines.
Second, since we all understand this, we’re not afraid of making forever typos, and we’ve turned that into a meme. We still shitpost a lot, but we think longer about the stuff that matters.
nostr:note1p55m6fsdznewfdrmrc3d9ak6629gh80m3jzrrejjt9w3sh8xfqjssedcn9