I’ve quietly watched as something quite ugly has developed on #nostr.

Going back almost a year, I’ve spoken about the future of nostr, the inevitable beginnings of bots, fake accounts, trolls.

Even then, I realized nostr was resilient to these things, thanks to layer 2, and the portability of the core values of Bitcoin.

However, there is a separate issue that I did not give much thought to, and now I’ve seen it grow as a trend and I feel I should speak on it.

I’m talking about begging by proxy. I’m prepared to start using my end user power of filtration to mute these npubs.

I’m tired of seeing pity me posts, I’m a victim of circumstance posts, poor me posts. It’s pretty ugly to watch certain users climb in popularity by virtue of association, to later use their exposure to appeal to other users sense of pity or empathy.

I remember a conversation with a male role model in my life during my 20s where my response to his questioning as to my lack of employment, was to say “ I can’t get a job because I don’t have a car, I can’t get a car because I don’t have any money, I don’t have any money because I can’t get a job…”. This was when he explained to me that I was a victim of circumstance, but that the fault was my own.

No matter the cycle, you must find the most viable attack vector to break the cycle.

All the users on nostr have their own hardships too. This isnt a “rich ppl chatroom” where you can cry about your hardships hoping some wealthy person will have sympathy for you.

Proof of work.

Not, beg for bitcoin.

There are a few users who need to scroll back up and read this again.

Or, don’t. But you risk becoming the first person I mute.

Sorry, not sorry.

Love you plebs…

🫂💜🧡🔱