I value order, efficiency, and reliability. I don't value simplicity or chaos quite so much. My effect on the nostr protocol has mainly been proposals to improve the reliability, efficiency, and orderliness of it, and the pushback has come mostly from people that like the freedom that the chaos gives them.
Some examples
* long ago I proposed that relays remember when an event arrived, and clients could query "all events that arrived after I last asked" to get a perfect next batch.
* long ago I proposed gossip/outbox model which specifies where events are expected to be, while many still choose very different and innovative ways to choose and use relays.
* I've been pushing for DHT usage to be more fully distributed and uncensorable, and to allow people to kickstart/bootstrap without knowing any relays or any nostr people. We get 99% functionality without it and so as you could imagine other devs don't really embrace the idea. I'm the guy who is never satisfied with 99%.
* I've wanted a rigorous standard that doesn't change
* I've wanted a binary protocol to juice up efficiency by avoiding JSON parsing
I feel like the black sheep in this regard (hence my avatar) because I gather that most nostr developers (and users) more highly value chaotic liberty.
Chaotic liberty is a great space to innovate in. But it is not a good space to build a solid user experience which requires a firm standard and compliance for interoperability. Hence I see hundreds of only somewhat compatible half-ass nostr applications that generally scare users off (which one? why are so many of them broken? and so different?).
This is all fine. But it means I'm not seeing nostr as the protocol that becomes the social media framework that the Internet eventually adopts. I see it more and more as a playground. Which is critical and innovative and wonderful. I just don't see how it can also be a stable user experience that draws in lots of users and creates substantial network effect value.
Mosaic is where I scratch my itch for order, efficiency, and reliability, and my attempt to create a solid user experience. I will be working on both Mosaic and nostr. Mosaic risks being too idealistic, the "betamax" of social media, but it is a risk I'm taking. Take joy knowing that I won't be bugging nostr devs as much about the chaos.
Should I post this or edit it more? Fuck it. I saw a meme that said to just post it.
