Nostr Web Client

Why Nostr is struggling…

There is too much of an overlap with X, not only in the feature sets among the primary applications, but more importantly, in the kind of audience that Nostr is catering to.

Sure..censorship resistance at the protocol level is a differentiator, but the to the average person, you may as well be talking gibberish. They don’t know wtf a protocol is in the first place - let alone why it matters for censorship resistance to happen at that level, or more importantly, WHY they should trust Nostr to deliver on that promise. “Bcoz nostr:npub1sg6plzptd64u62a878hep2kev88swjh3tw00gjsfl8f237lmu63q0uf63m said so” is not an argument.

————

Bluesky is a case in point here.

It’s got a VERY similar feature set to X, claims to be open source / censorship resistant (similar narrative to Nostr), and is growing MUCH faster than Nostr, bc it has captured a key audience, ie; people with TDS and EDS (Elon Derangement Syndrome).

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/bluesky-signups-surge-uk-amid-musks-row-with-government-over-riots-2024-08-13/?

I’ve been on there a few times, and the content quality is enough to make you want to throw up….but at the very least, it’s working for that kind of content, and for the people who want it.

I don’t have a direct answer here..but I think it’s something to do with the over-emphasis on technicals.

nostr:npub1az9xj85cmxv8e9j9y80lvqp97crsqdu2fpu3srwthd99qfu9qsgstam8y8 mentioned increasing the emphasis on design the other day. I agree this is a move in the right direction. We’re taking a very design-focused approach with nostr:npub15xd2mmjnh3caykh77djsv73e0zkrp42jp5mwerx8f4m6su40wdvss7t3l3 (we’ll have ALOT more to show in the next 6wks).

That being said, it’s not enough.

IMO, Nostr is technically mature enough for us to go out there and talk about it to more people, and build a narrative BEYOND the 500 of us that are talking to each other on here.

People like nostr:npub1l2vyh47mk2p0qlsku7hg0vn29faehy9hy34ygaclpn66ukqp3afqutajft or nostr:npub1dergggklka99wwrs92yz8wdjs952h2ux2ha2ed598ngwu9w7a6fsh9xzpc can correct me if I am wrong here. Maybe there’s alot more to do technically.

But if I am right, I’d like to see more initiatives that are marketing oriented being supported by nostr:npub17xvf49kht23cddxgw92rvfktkd3vqvjgkgsdexh9847wl0927tqsrhc9as and nostr:npub10pensatlcfwktnvjjw2dtem38n6rvw8g6fv73h84cuacxn4c28eqyfn34f and other coalitions. Maybe we even need a council of Nostr businesses, who together pool some funds to help drive some marketing initiatives?

Whatever the case, we need to expand upon the Nostr narrative, make it more compelling and speak to more people about it.

At the very least, we have to conquer then Bitcoiners. If we can’t get the segment who are into freedom money onto the freedom of speech network, we’re DOA. That’s a first step.

I know nostr:npub1hz5alqscpp8yjrvgsdp2n4ygkl8slvstrgvmjca7e45w6644ew7sewtysa is working on a very cool initiative in relation to this. The Nostr Booth is IMO a great way to make Nostr more “real” for bitcoiners by having a physical presence at all the conferences.

I know nostr:npub1utx00neqgqln72j22kej3ux7803c2k986henvvha4thuwfkper4s7r50e8 + nostr:npub180cvv07tjdrrgpa0j7j7tmnyl2yr6yr7l8j4s3evf6u64th6gkwsyjh6w6 are doing some Podcast outreach. That’s super important too. nostr:npub16vrkgd28wq6n0h77lqgu8h4fdu0eapxgyj0zqq6ngfvjf2vs3nuq5mp2va and crew are putting on Nostriga. Amazing. nostr:npub16c0nh3dnadzqpm76uctf5hqhe2lny344zsmpm6feee9p5rdxaa9q586nvr / nostr:npub12vkcxr0luzwp8e673v29eqjhrr7p9vqq8asav85swaepclllj09sylpugg are doing great things with nostr:npub1spdnfacgsd7lk0nlqkq443tkq4jx9z6c6ksvaquuewmw7d3qltpslcq6j7, etc on the content side. I’ve got some things up my sleeve personally which I will begin to do once nostr:npub15xd2mmjnh3caykh77djsv73e0zkrp42jp5mwerx8f4m6su40wdvss7t3l3 is in a position to represent a NEW kind of Nostr-product..

But we need MOAR..

And…we also need to find another angle that is NOT about censorship resistance. That’s clearly not working against X.

I don’t know the EXACT narrative or spin, but it has to be more “running towards” than “running from”.

More white pill, less black pill.

Anyway.

I will probably turn this into an article. I’ve been thinking more and more about “writing in public” as we build Satlantis, and sharing more about how we’re thinking about growing a “network product” on top of a “network protocol”.

If you think this was valuable, please repoast so more people can see and get involved in the discussion.

Sasker 1y ago 💬 4

What do you mean with struggle? Is it just that its taking time for adoption? Or is it more the capitalization of devs? From a distance it looks quite fast if I see what’s developed and used. Could easily be wrong 😇

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Discussion

Svetski 1y ago 💬 1

Development is great.

See my comment 10min ago to Lyn.

Clarifies further.

And the biggest area of struggle IMO is where nostr lives in people’s minds (outside of the regular crowd on here).

It’s struggling to find a place.

BlueSky, as shit as it is, found a place, and it’s very clear: “The Anti-X”.

And it’s growing 10-20x the rate that nostr is, as a result

Martin 1y ago

If the masses would arrive tomorrow, all relays would run out of disk space and shut down, no?

MuyMaestro 1y ago

The people that still pay attention to msm aren't the ones going to come to nostr.

I really don't care if all the bluesky people want to wall themselves off there in their echo chamber because they are the type that aren't swayed by truth, facts and logic anyway. They are the emotional, theoretical types.

The value of nostr is here, it's real and that's all it needs to be. Like bitcoin up until about this year.

Those who can see actual value will arrive. Those who can't are better left behind.

BeOG 1y ago 💬 1

nostr:npub1dtgg8yk3h23ldlm6jsy79tz723p4sun9mz62tqwxqe7c363szkzqm8up6m features like nostr:npub1pr4du5xl28dy5sh4msz9uddnwxgzupkk4qzjzklv84edc6ruevzqlxmkzp seem to be valuable tools. I can say that everyone on the social world will need a landing page or an about me page but very many do

For example

The-bitcoin-blok.npub.pro also I found a use case to help my daughter out with her first web page https://aejassweetspot0.npub.pro/

Npub.pro actually gets the job done easier than some traditional options. While I do understand this may not be the most socially attractive feature. I do believe it shows some of great utility of Nostr

brugeman 1y ago 💬 1

I agree with you. And those desserts look yummy!

Sasker 1y ago

Sir, excuse me. Didn’t see the show more, almost wrote a better reply and got distracted. Thanks for replying. Being anti is definitely not going to get us what we want.

As a nostr-newb, non dev, though ‘bitcoiner’ I can share the first needs and thought I had.

Port the X posts/acc’s of the people I want to see the posts of. We could do this somewhat ‘en masse’.

Strategically choose the accs you want to do first, automate porting over every post from them.

After seeing your post I think we relieve much friction of just deleting X. And we make the beds for the owners of those accounts.

Send them a message with “in case you get banned and lose all your content (and followers) we made you a backup”.

Hopefully those people convert to actually using it when they see what’s possible.

Still competing with X there but in a better way.

Plenty of questions I have on feasibility but this is a need I had as an early user.