Proof of concept: e-mail style subscriptions on Nostr
Problem: I love reading some authors on e.g. nostr:npub1048qg5p6kfnpth2l98kq3dffg097tutm4npsz2exygx25ge2k9xqf5x3nf or nostr:npub19mduaf5569jx9xz555jcx3v06mvktvtpu0zgk47n4lcpjsz43zzqhj6vzk but I tend to miss their updates.
Could I get a DM every time they post something? Or on a weekly basis?
So I built a tiny ~20kb fully functional web component for publishers that:
- scans publisher DM inbox for messages with "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" and builds a subscriptor list on the fly
- sends out a message to the list with a custom message including an URL
- checks sent DMs to warn if that link was already shared
Is kind 4 the way to go? Or could we have a better construct for subs/unsubs, maybe using shared lists?
Please share and let me know!
https://video.nostr.build/23ac80e5beab3f5ca17fe469986a2c0a781a0b832becf48938178d656b179b4c.mov
he messaging part to "subscribe" is not the friendliest UX imo, but will work for people who are determined to get updates.
Ideally, you'd have a way to subscribe to author updates from the clients they are reading from (e.g I click "Subscribe to franzap" in Habla OR, a client that is dedicated to subscription management.
This is a big idea that we need to make Substack alternatives work! First make subs work, then add payments and we've got ourselves an open substack.
What is the state of the art on Subscriptions with Lightning + Nostr? As in: planned recurrent zaps + "follow" of a feed of only one type of content (article, newsletter, podcast episode, ...)
Things I'd like to avoid:
- DM's to notify me
- Paywalls
Instead, I imagine something like:
A subscribe button that adds the npub to a standardized profile-list for, let's say, newsletters and also sets up optional recurrent zaps to this npub. Then, certain apps, like Highlighter, pick up on this and display all newsletters from this list in the newsletters inbox.
This avoids the unnecessary one-way communication of sending DM's out to everyone that subscribes to a creator and instead lets them pull from the creators publications directly.
nostr:note1mx79aceghn3ncps7te3q5xjrsac57qywx6c7ghd788sf3a7sha4qvga7ax
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