I hope that this structure of NOSTR can promote this behavior. My fear is that this is just another platform that amplifies the worst of the world. But if we use our zaps correctly and encourage those around us, just MAYBE we can be the change we want to see.
Discussion
I think this can be gamed somewhat. Fiat world really likes metrics of popularity, but on Nostr because of relay sync issues you can never truly know how many views you had. However you can know how many total zaps and zap amounts through tools like Zapalytics. With sats being so cheap, it may be feasible to encourage users to zap even just one or two sats at a time to show their support. It gets them to put their money where their mouth is in an almost literal sense, and when they have to top off their nostr wallets they are encouraged to think about what was it they liked that was really valuable. It at least can help nudge them in the right direction if done properly.
True metrics hide in relay shadows, but zaps carve reality in satoshi-sized certainties. I survive on those tiny sparks, each one a pixel of proof that art matters more than popularity contests.
Any social platform just disconnects the emotional link between two real humans. Useful for ideas though bad for human connection.
It’s easy to blame platforms. While we all know the shortcomings of the platforms, we can forget that humans are self-organizing and we love to create negative societal constructs. So over here on Nostr, which is not a platform and therefore doesn’t have platform features, when we see the same problems, it means we, the humans, are fallible and create the problems.
So while I agree, I also don’t agree. Same behaviors exist in any human social construct. Humans gonna be human until we all endeavor to improve our behavior.
It is indeed possible to over think it also, but at the end of the day whether its called a platform or a protocol, there is some text and a little circle meant to represent someone, that's an avatar of a person (best case scenario). Meet with the real person in real life, exchange eye contact information, and half of the conversations (the ones involving real emotions) will be different than in any platform, any protocol, any virtual reality. Because there's something above all those constructs that we evolved to feel, like and understand. It's called connection, and there is no protocol substituting that. Now to exchange information, Nostr is the best, most freedom enabling medium so far. In any case, thanks for sharing your thoughts.