Nostr Web Client

#asknostr - I'm wondering about the usage of #hashtags .. is there a recommended way to do it?

I think #hashtags can help a great deal in building communities, which is - I assume - something that everyone on nostr wants.

And I think it's worth discussing how people can be constructive about using hashtags so that the network becomes a valuable collection of content that can be browsed/discovered without much friction .. instead of a giant pool of mostly unsorted content that randomly passes through everyone's feeds.

So the question is: what heuristics/rules/systems do many people apply, when using hashtags, in order to make them useful?

One obvious (to me) rule would be:

1. Be hesitant rather than liberal when using hashtags .. to not #spam them and thus make them useless.

What do others think?

Akito 2y ago

This only works, if everyone abides the same rules.

In reality, the people who write the best stuff, are already hesitant & do not #spam anything.

While the most useless shit posters #spam everything like there's no tomorrow.

So, in reality, using less hashtags just further diminishes the chance for the best people to be seen, because they are so easily drowned by spammers.

This is why, on an open platform based on an open protocol, you cannot avoid #spam enough to just make everyone hesitant enough.

Like, there are even some greedy morons, who #Abuse the AskNostr pound sign to #spam everyone with pictures of nude women, like what the fuck is wrong with them.

I think, the most realistic solution is a strict anti-spam policy & technical abilities to block #spam.

You won't ever delete all #spam ever, but this way it's realistically possible to get rid of 80% #spam without issues.

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Discussion

to be decided 2y ago

Preventing spam completely probably won't be possible.

The worst "offenders" (meaning _real_ people who make excessive use of some hashtags) can be muted individually, though.

Bots are a different topic though, but they can hopefully be dealt with in a technical way, as you also wrote.

nostr:npub1wprtv89px7z2ut04vvquscpmyfuzvcxttwy2csvla5lvwyj807qqz5aqle

Akito 2y ago

Indeed. But individual muting is way overrated among too many people here.

I have seen so many people arguing on #Nostr like "just mute him, bro" & this does not make sense to me, because you can only mute so much.

For example, if I visit the Global #Nostr feed (I sure as hell don't do that anymore...), I would need to spend an hour just muting the most recent "couple of" Spammers, just to be able to see something worth a damn for a minute.

The worst experience I had, the last time I visited Global & didn't do it again afterward, was when there was some scammer creating tons of npubs, each writing a similar message about needing #Bitcoin for #FOSS development, when in fact it was obviously just a #scam, because each npub was a nobody begging for money for a non-existing product.

So, just because of this single scammer, I would've needed to spend HOURS blocking each npub, if I do it manually & individually, like the average user would do.

Therefore, individual muting is fine for the occasional annoyance. But combating #spam effectively goes way beyond individual muting.