I wrote [Oracolo](https://github.com/dtonon/oracolo) (see the announcement below) because I was brainstorming about Nostr "long format" and thinking about how to promote it. There seems to be little love for this format, why?
Long posts should have interesting value because the author usually put effort into them, and are produced for a long-term fruition. In the end, blogging was one of the most productive strands on the web, and still holds considerable importance.
But in standard (kind-1) social clients they are rather hidden. I think many people don't even know they exist, they probably intuit something just because they see a particular formatting. This is quite evident if you compare the responses/zaps/reactions of the short notes with the long ones, the latter have far fewer interactions, a fact that I read as less exposure to readers.
Interlude: don't know what this "long format" stuff is?
Check https://habla.news or https://highlighter.com
I think the situation can be largely improved with some adjustments in kind-1 clients:
- Add a tab/section to the user's profile, next to the usual posts/responses, that lists only the long format notes;
- Highlight/pinning recent long notes in the user's profile to give them visibility; the user picture could also have a special mark that alerts about fresh content available;
- In the feed show the preview of long notes with a special design, and allow the user to read them in a separate/immersive view (or just link to njump.me);
- In an appropriate context (es. at the footer of a long note) invite the user to discover long format and post his own content;
- Offer a filtered feed that display only long format notes;
Finally, we should probably also evaluate and agree on a new labeling in clients, because “long notes” is self-explanatory but also a bit confusing next to "plain notes”. Perhaps “articles” might be a better term.
If clients bring more interaction on articles, content creators are naturally incentivized to invest their time in this area, thus increasing the production of in-depth content that may be of interest even to those who are not as involved in social media dynamics.
Memo for kind-1 clients: interoperability is our superpower and currently your are the main entrance to Nostr, so don't be fearful or lazy, please embrace it.
#nostrdesign
