Extending the web of trust to 3 degrees:

When you follow someone on Nostr, that creates a connection in your network. Each person is a node in the graph of who follows who.

Some people you follow directly. Others you see through reposts, zaps, or replies from people you follow. These are indirect connections.

People who show up through a chain like:

you → someone you follow → someone they follow → someone they follow

are called depth 3 connections.

To decide whether these distant people should show up in your feed, you can use the mute to follow ratio.

For each person at depth 3:

Count how many people in your extended network follow them.

Count how many of those same people have muted them.

Calculate the ratio of follows to mutes. If many follow and few mute, they’re probably worth surfacing.

If few follow and many mute, it’s a sign they’re low signal.

This helps you tune what you see based on how trusted people in your network react.