Could we use a network map and see profiles and nodes and hubs connected to each other so we can see the popular profiles with many following/followers?
we are working on one at nostr:npub17vscfmnmshfdw68llhduxtr4h0kkmyhzm4phzs40t3gqsmguz7lsak66ne! using intentional design of people and spaces.
you can go to your own block (top 21 profiles) or neighborhood or hop into different people's neighborhoods (curated list of profiles, no cap. this is different than your follow list).
if you were new to Nostr you'd visit a few popular neighborhoods and start having fun.
or you can go explore the city - hang out in districts (hashtags like #coffeechain) or intersections (two hashtags like #bitcoin & #grow).
you can go to the wilds and see the full Nostr feed but inside NextBlock the block/neighborhood/city should be enough to have fun for a few minutes on social media!
Discussion
love where your head is and we do have a plan for visualizing popularity. that's down the line and a little different than what you're describing but it's important to first note...
we believe in ending "following" people and instead just adding them to your contacts (like our old school physical address books!). then it won't matter how many people have you in their contacts, your reach is instead how many blocks or neighborhoods you've been added to.
so a person added to a lot of neighborhoods could be considered popular, rather than someone who is simply in a lot of people's contacts. a popular neighbor if you will...
I also think instead of finding profiles, on nextblock you'll find a few accounts of people you already know, hang out in their in neighborhoods and decide for yourself whether you even want to curate your own neighborhood.
also important to note...
we will have an opt in ad experience that lets you set the price for you attention/you get paid on Bitcoin to watch ads
if you hang out in someone else's neighborhood and an ad fires off, they will get a cut of your payout. a fee for the experience they've curated for you in their neighborhood.
we envision popular neighborhoods to QC the accounts they choose. they'll be financially incentivized to maintain the experience that people are coming for.
with this design and incentivized structure we think it will be less laborious to have an awesome feed of content from accounts you actually want to see.
"Show me the feed from this neighborhood, what are people saying?"
Instead of individual follows, categories in columns like in the old Tweetdeck app. When you add a profile or a neighborhood or a search topic, it becomes a new feed that you can save for later, edit as desired, or discard when it stops being interesting enough to keep.
Ads that zap us to thank us for our time, AND a way to zap back to say "I really loved the creativity and the message". Make it a two way street so we can get away from the Advertising model and move to the Appreciation model.
think of ads as promoted notes! you will be about to zap comment repost them just like any other note!