THE CASE FOR #NOSTR (& #ONLYZAPS)

Nobody asked, but here’s my 2 sats on the evolution of online interactions:

There once was a time when the “like” (👍) was the be-all and end-all in terms of measuring content effectiveness.

In the early days of social media, "likes" played a significant role in determining a post's popularity and reach. This was particularly true on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, where users could easily show their approval of a post by clicking the "like" button.

Likes were seen as ~thee~ measure of social validation. They also played a role in determining which content was promoted on a user's newsfeed or discover page, as posts with more likes were given priority 📈

However, in recent years, many social media platforms have started to de-emphasize likes as a measure of success. Some have even experimented with hiding like counts altogether in an effort to reduce the pressure on users to seek validation through likes and to promote more authentic engagement.

The goalposts of metrics are changing.

Vanity out. Value in.

Traditional web2 platforms like Instagram and TikTok began treating content that had a high save to like ratio more favorably in terms of the algorithm 📱

And you know what’s better than a save (which is essentially a glorified bookmark)?

A #zap

This is the future of social media.

Even those on trad web2 social are catching on.

We’re no longer just interacting for the sake of interacting.

The possibility for more intentional responses encourages more intentional creation. And more intentional creation contributes to a value exchange that fosters a self-sustaining ecosystem ♻️

Here’s the desired hierarchy specific to #Nostr:

#Zap - This is worth its weight in sats

#Repost - I need others to see it

#Comment - I need to share my opinion about it

#Like - This resonates

Do you see how little the 🤙 compares to the other interactions in terms of existence?

Now, not every piece of content we make is necessarily created for the sake of attracting a lot of engagement or for making a lot of money. And to an extent, likes may always matter to one degree or another because they help indicate how much said content resonates with one's audience 👥

But it’s interesting to see the role value plays and what value means when both creators and consumers can engage on social media in ways that have not been possible previously.

I’m excited to continue to explore this relationship on Nostr and I’m grateful for everyone who’s here now on the journey.

What kind of value are you hoping to bring to and receive from Nostr?

#socialmedia #content #plebchain #monetization #tiktok #twitter #instagram #facebook #creators #consumers #bitcoin

Firstly thank you for your thoughts on this.

For me it’s not and has never been about vanity!

For me it’s been about engagement for those that cannot afford to zap or the newbies that are too intimidate to comment- yet.

I never said I had no objections to removing it, just seems not the time yet - too young an app to implement this whilst trying to bring across users that are used to having this.

Please do not put us all in the same basket and label it ‘vanity’ as I said for me it is not. 💜🫂🙏

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Discussion

“Vanity metric” isn’t a personal attack on anyone! It’s just a term we use in marketing.

But thank you for sharing your perspective. It’s much appreciated and I definitely understand that side of things 😊