Question for recently joined new users: what was your signup experience like? Impression? And what app/client are you using?
Discussion
new user experience research 🔑
You can find and ask them on wss://welcome.nostr.wine 🫡
It would be great to ask people why they are here to begin with to see how we might begin to meet those expectations.
You seem fairly new. Care to answer your own question and mine? 🤗
I’m new! Honestly I didn’t know what to expect. A bunch of my friends downloaded it at the same time so I followed suit. I intentionally got a new wallet for zapping. When I got here it looked like Twitter so then I started to assume Twitter like things. I did not expect y’all to be friendly.
Sign up was difficult for me as I'm not very tech savvy. It took a few weeks to get a full profile set up. I even coached a friend and it 1 hour. We started with Astral and now both use damus.
I think Astral has been abandoned for a while if I’m not mistaken. Would not surprise me if it was hard to use.
Being tech savvy shouldn’t be an issue. If signup is hard or confusing, developers screwed the pooch
What was the most challenging thing during sign up?
If you could roll out one new feature to make onboarding easier what would it be?
I was going through Google Play Store reviews of nostr clients, this is what I found.
Hell I forgot how I even signed up at this point hahaha
You don’t remember posting Lightning invoices and other plebs paying your relay fees?! Seems like years ago.
Downloading the Damus app was easy, but setting up your wallet and understanding some of the terminology (e.g. zaps, relays) took a little Googling.
Seems maybe it would be a good idea to have a little intro guided tour #[3]
Thank you for the feedback #[2]
We have a couple related feature requests:
What’s a relay explanation: https://github.com/damus-io/damus/issues/480
Zap onboarding: https://github.com/damus-io/damus/issues/571
The latter could use some design love #[5] #[6].
The former we have an outstanding simple text add “what’s a relay” PR outstanding for your review #[3] https://github.com/damus-io/damus/pull/550
Thanks! Overall, I had a good experience with the app, but it’s nice to know where to find more info.
I heard about nostr because of bitcoin. I downloaded #amethyst client and created a key. That was easy (non technical Pleb here).
First days only some pub keys I found from nostr directory and then looking followers of other people etc.
Some questions to developers who answered almost immediately 🙏 and find out how to connect LN wallet, profile image, banner, etc.
Some search about NIP-05 verification and that's all.
Write, share and #grownostr day by day.
I am using Amethyst which is great (some crashes but it's ok for now)
I tried also iris but not so satisfied.
#Nostr is paradise for bitcoin people but I think I must find also other interesting people, some news also etc.
I think it's a bit like wild west, every day something new.
For now I use more nostr than twitter and I already deleted my insta account 🙂
#plebchain
Well, it was like “public key? private key? wtf!”. I reckon Nostr is not easy for non-tech people, but once you understand how it works, it’s irresistible.
Exactly. This is the most "difficult" part of the process 🙂 for persons who had never heard about these. But you have just to read-search a bit and that's all (and I think this is good)
I wonder if having a short explainer video in the beginning would help?
philosophically ux should do this job or it’s bad
low key people are just not curious enough that this is still needed
I am not sure. I think sometimes it's good to let people search and learn a bit alone (they must want it of course). If you start to show them long strings of keys (ok it's just like pass) then maybe have the opposite results.
On the other hand a small intro to keys-pass
relays, profil image-banner and LN wallet it would be helpful for someone who decides to try it
🙄
I’m newish (Not since December like some ppl). So feel like I can answer this. Signup experience was horrible. Very confusing. Keys? Wtf? Can’t post vids/pics, took weeks learn how add profile pic. Hashtags also confusing, took over month to figure out ya gotta “click” the hashtag below in global. Global full of porn & spamming Asian language characters. Total turn off. Bitcoin talk on every post felt like, so confusing, overwhelming, don’t care to see it. No one would talk to me. No one would follow me. Bizarre words like plebs.. makes no sense.. adds further confusion. Users not welcoming.. not like it is now/today.. where ppl say hello to new users. That didn’t happen when I arrived here. Exception to this tho, few kind users (Will Damus was one of first user that talked to me, TY for that btw.. it was the ONE thing that made me feel “seen”). Otherwise I felt 99% invisible.? Summary… Nostr is hard!! I have tech understanding better than average user, & I struggled. Tried convo earlier today.. but fell on deaf ears. Ps. Love your new pfp!! 🫶🫂❤️
hello!
Great feedback! Yes, I agree, the whole pleb talk terminology is off putting. Makes it feel like a private group you’re not a part of. Honestly think it’s one of the least appealing aspects of this community. I’ve used the terminology a few times but then realized I’m just part of the problem.
Pleb is an ordinary person, we are all ordinary people, we are all plebs, that’s the whole point. The word pleb has been around for quite some time.
You’ve completely gotten the wrong end of the stick. Plebs are everyone - especially the new joiners and small holders. The word comes from Roman times literally meaning common people.
When you use the #plebchain tag, like I often do, it’s a message out to the masses. The fact the emoji is two people hugging is also a good hint of its intention
I’m so sorry your experience has been so tough. I really hope it gets better for you. 🫂🌻
Thank you for your reply #[2]
Indeed my experience has changed, but it was a struggle, & feel responsible to the community to speak freely to make it more user friendly & better accessible. I also give great thanks to Karnage for asking the question, and being open, as it’s what a great leader & innovator does, ask for feedback. Thank you for your words & time Lotta 🫶🫂🌻
Sounds frustrating! You came in mid February. I wish you had seen the growth this place has had from late ‘22 until now…
Spam and porn were non-existent, but only because we were so early that we had beat out the spammers and the porn bots. When they came, the response by devs to control spam and spin up paid relays happened immediately, and it was impressive.
Yes, the onboarding issues you are bringing up are super frustrating and hindering growth. We absolutely need to make it more friendly for new users. But I am 100% confident these issues will be tackled by users continuing to give feedback and devs being able to create new tools and pivot quickly. Already we are seeing clients focused on less technical users (Current), new guides, onboarding sites, etc. These things didn’t exist a few months ago, they were built to address some of these problems.
But, remember… Nostr was built with censorship resistance as its #1 goal. So naturally it’s early adopters are obsessed with censorship resistance, decentralization, hard money - aka bitcoiners. Advocating that current users change their behavior or culture is not going to be effective on a network built around censorship resistance. We need to focus on bringing highly visible content creators here, and they will bring their followers with them.
Yes, there are echo chambers, but they are getting less resonant. Yes the UI/UX and onboarding sucks, but it’s getting better daily. These are just growing pains. The network is built on a solid foundation of censorship resistance and that will pay dividends soon enough. Nostr is hard but it’s getting better every single day. Consider being here and figuring it out this early your proof of work!
How is the Asia vaginatraian food in Berlin? Any good?
Very interesting feedback! Back when I joined in early December, there was no jargon and no spam (not even the Nostrich meme existed at the time). Also, there were lots of users helping each other, saying hello to newcomers. But I agree, over time niche terms and cliques started appearing. The huge amount of spam on Global drowned new people trying to understand the platform. Thanks for sharing!
Where I'm coming from: software dev, comfortable with SSH keys, has been on Mastodon & several other ActivityPub platforms for years, remembers the days when "crypto" unambiguously referred to cryptography for security, tried SSB briefly, dabbled in IPFS a while ago but otherwise not involved in the crypto ecosystem or community at all.
Read through the docs at nostr.com. It was not immediately clear that a public key could be generated using a Nostr client. Confused by the contradiction between needing a private key on a client to be able to use it and being advised to avoid giving the private key to a client. Finally just picked an Android client (#amethyst) to mess around with it and see what happened.
Had to dig around for how to set up a profile. Surprised that it uploads to imgurl. No idea wtf NIP-05, LL, etc were. Dug around github & found the list of NIPs, saw that 05 was sort of like what AP servers do for user lookup but not really. Pondered where/whether i would implement it.
Looked at the global timeline & mostly saw crypto memes and that was about it.
Did a couple of test posts.
It wasn't clear from the documentation that copying the private key to another clients (which, again, it said not to do) would log me into the same profile. Found one of the browser extensions and tried #Coracle in a desktop, which at first couldn't find my profile until I looked up the list of relays in Amethyst and entered one of those in Coracle.
There are a lot of icons that aren't clear what they even do from a newbie perspective. I gather the lightning bolt has something to do with cryptocurrency? I think the extra icons appearing next to posts indicate which relays they've been seen on, but again that's not clear.
I still haven't found an explanation of what "proof" is needed for indicating a Twitter or Mastodon profile, or why the concept exists for social networks but not for, say, your website url.
I also found the AP/Nostr bridge at (iirc) mostr.pub, but didn't get a sense from the home page of how I would go about linking a Mastodon account to it.
Overall, it really feels like the docs and the clients I've tried so far are assuming a certain domain-specific knowledge and not providing any of the connective tissue. Kind of like the "missing stair" analogy except about how to do something instead of who to avoid.
Great feedback. I totally agree that NIP05 naming is a giant mistake that no normal person understands. I brought this concern up very early on but it’s been largely forgotten.
Also agree with key info, definitely confusing. We have tools like nosta.me now but even that probably requires more polish.
#[4]
I started using nostr when I realized it is "actually" a distributed protocol, less than 2 months ago. There should be no "signup" with a good client.
The best clients just show the feed without even asking about signup (i.e. creating keys) When the user goes to post the client generates a key at the click of a button and tells the user to copy it or loose it. That is the best experience for new users. Coracle and Iris are good for this on a computer. Amethyst is very good for this on android.
For me however, the best client is Gossip because I want total control over my computer and have little trust in web tech and DNS, etc. There is something for everyone in the clients being created right now. New users should try some different ones out until you find one you like, they are all different.
Also, Recently for about 2 weeks there was an app on a site called https://member.cash that had the best interface I have seen. I found it and tested it and it was great but in two weeks it was gone and I can't find it again. (maybe NSA doing some testing?) The app was really well laid out and did everything right... best I had seen, but before I even got a chance to look for the source, it was gone. A heads up to new users, if a client works too good I would be skeptical. The developers are working fast, but the apps are far from polished at this point, any you find like member.cash that are mature and seem to be blistering fast, I suggest asking around to find out who the developer is and if anyone has examined their code.
The eruption of lighting enabled zaping of bitcoin (sending people money instead of 'likes') is nothing short of phenominal. However, new users should be and probably are VERY sceptical about using these because although the tech is solid, the trust in third parties is not. It's a lot like taking candy from strangers... be careful who you trust.
Joined a few weeks ago via Iris. Using a pseudonym unlike in all my previous participation in other social medias. May change that at some point, may not. Verified myself on nostriches.net, connected a Wallet of Satoshi. Experience was as expected. Did not bring over my Twitter followers, so starting with a clean slate. Understandably, I don't have a lot of followers. Why would anybody follow someone who calls himself 2P? I zapped a few notes 1K each, received two zaps. Still trying to figure out what the right amount of sats is for a zap.
Ty for sharing. 🙏
Yes you are right, why would anyone follow 2P 😂
Looking at your very fresh feed, I would personally not follow because I see “gradually then suddenly”. It’s a personal pet peeve of mine and not a judgment on anyone, but I’m tired of all the overused bitcoin lines. Maybe they are fun to bitcoin newbies but for someone who has been in the space on and off for over a decade it’s really boring. Again, not judging you, just expressing how I personally feel about it.
Thanks for your feedback. Much appreciated!
FTR, I was using "gradually then suddenly" in relation to Twitter's expected demise, specifically Microsoft pulling out their ads. The phrase is a Hemingway quote and predates Bitcoin. But I can see how being overused in relation to bitcoin may rub people the wrong way.
Thanks for sharing. I’ll follow 2p!
#plebchain ⛓️ Followed 🤙
I joined a few days ago, had a welcome off a few people which was nice. However since then I do find it hard to get into a conversation or find people to follow. Global/universe is full of spam? How do I stop that? It's quite difficult for a new person for sure
Your frustration is very understandable. Global spam is an issue still unless you sign up for a paid relay. But that’s not new user friendly at all…
The best thing to do is to follow someone, look through their list of follow and follow them too. Then you can explore hashtags to see what’s there.
What I think we need is a list of topics to follow in onboarding (when you first sign up).
Also adding bios under user names in the follow lists
Yeah I've been slowly finding to people to follow.
But I agree, relays are not very user friendly at all, no idea when I joined what they do, how to use them to filter stuff out etc
Would definitely be great for an easy to understand explanation on that.
⚡️🤙
Don’t give up. Keep searching for people. A good place to start is searching the #plebchain for people with similar interests. I’m gonna try and help you as well.
Followed and zapped🤙🏻
Thanks! Definitely will take a look!
Tried when it all started popping off a few months back; was very cool and promising but also just not that active. was fun seeing jack send sats. since then, lost my key and just spent a couple hours diving back in. was very frustrated until I found iris.to. Has been the fastest and most responsive/intuitive experience with nostr yet. Hoping to dive in with purpose this time. I also saved my key this time!
1) The global feed is overwhelming to a new user. I was only successful because I looked up people I already follow on Twitter. Once I was following 5-10 well-known people (like #[2]), it was smooth sailing.
2) Knowing how to export and protect your private key is not emphasized in clients. Clients need to do a better job of explaining the importance of safely managing keys. #Amethyst
Went smoothly. Use Damus. Was already familiar with priv:pub key concept from btc. Use WoS to zap people cause it was quick and easy.
Damus I definitely one of the easier clients to set up now. And you have an upper hand in cryptography principles 🙌