Some thoughts on #nostr relays:
(This is long. Sorry.)
Right now, all relays are either “paid”, “free”, or “private”, and all are general-purpose, more or less. The main problems with this structure are:
1. People don’t like paying for what they’re currently getting for “free” (see: Twitter, Facebook, Reddit)
2. Free relays tend to (or soon will) fill with spam and are not financially sustainable for the relay operator.
3. Sometimes people want to post publicly, so “private” is undesirable. And information SHOULD be public.
4. Like it or not, Bitcoin discussions are currently running rampant on Nostr. While that’s not inherently bad, it is a big turn-off for those who are not (yet) orange-pilled.
I’ve heard murmurings about topical relays, but how would that work? Here’s a concept, and I would invite discussion on it.
I’m imagining a future where many relays are run by non-profit organizations, universities, and other membership-based groups as a marketing and community-engagement tool. Paying-members of non-profit orgs are already donating money because they believe in the mission. Similarly, in the case of universities, people are members of that community by the nature of them being students, staff, or faculty. Other industry organizations/associations have similar membership structures.
By being a member of the organization, you are granted access to their relay as an additional membership benefit.
For example: An undergraduate student posts to their university’s relay and interacts with that community. That student is studying, say, agriculture with an emphasis on nut trees. The Northern Nut Growers Association membership includes write access to their relay. By adding that relay too, the student can now easily communicate with professionals in that industry, get guidance on their research projects, and engage in networking opportunities that could land them a job upon graduation.
Personally, I’m a paying member of several organizations and would happily join their relays if it meant that people with similar interests became immediately available.
This solves all the above problems:
1. Technically, it’s a “paid” relay, but funding is abstracted through membership fees/donations.
2. Since it’s membership-only, spam would likely be minimal. The relay could also optionally moderate the content if they had the resources/desire to do so.
3. I would propose that such relays be private-write but public-read. Non-members could still add the relay and see everything going on in that organization, but wouldn’t be able to write to it unless they join as a member. Maybe public-write for Kind: 3 only, so the organization can track followers.
4. Giving users the opportunity to limit their relays to specific organizations allows them to focus on the topics they’re most interested in. Sure, someone at a university might also be interested in Bitcoin, but it’s unlikely to dominate the feed. And certainly, they could join other public relays as they choose. Maybe not have them show up in their Universe feed.
So how do we get there? I have no idea. This is a Network Effect problem.
One issue with this is that these organizations are not necessarily the most technically-savvy, so there would need to emerge an industry of hosting companies that would offer this sort of relay service as a turn-key product. It happened for web sites (see: Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, Wordpress.com) and I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t happen for Nostr.
So, comments?
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