So I heard #nostr doesn't have an algorithm of engagement? Is that right? What's the reasonining behind it? Would love to better understand how this protocol resolves the issues and the trap established social networks have gotten cornered into...
Discussion
On Nostr, people send their note to relays, which hold them together in a big library. When you follow people, you ask the relays to send you the notes authored by the people you follow.
How much engagement in zaps or likes or comments or boosts a note has makes no difference in that process. But you can discover other people based on boosts other people make.
There may be clients in the future that allow for different algorithms besides seeing everyone you follow in reverse chronological order. But it will always be your choice hope you want your content displayed.
Thank you, for that explanation. 🙏🏻 Could you reiterate the part about seeing everyone you follow in reverse chronological way? Not sure I quite got that.
Sure, it's when you see the feed of people you follow. Right now, most clients will show the latest notes made by those people, and as you scroll, you see older and older notes.
That's one kind of algorithm called "reverse chronological". Primal and some other clients have a sidebar of "most zapped" and such notes that provides an alternative algorithm to see what's popular or trending.
Centralized algorithms like Twitter or Facebook will lead you to believe you're viewing reverse chronological, but they have an interest in picking and choosing what you see to keep you engaged on their platform. This can't happen on Nostr unless you follow a relay that does that. But if you don't like that relay, you have the option to drop it and use a more neutral one. I think that's the biggest way Nostr, in it's decentralization, gives power back to you and me, the users.
You don't have suggestion for following new account or sponsored content. You are free to follow anyone you want. This ensures that your feed has quality content you really want and like with no external influence
The algorithm censors what you really want to see