Nostr Web Client

VikiSecrets 2y ago

My Bitcoin Fiat City NFT at the HiveFest crypto conference in Rosarito, Mexico 🤩

#bitcoin #cryptoart #nft #hive #hivefest #mexico

VikiSecrets 2y ago

Miss Bitcoin at Miss Universe 2023 in El Salvador 🤩

via nostr:npub1t8a7uumfmam38kal4xaakzyjccht4y5jxfs4cmlj0p768pxtwu8skh56yu

#bitcoin #fashion #elsalvador #missuniverse #model

Replying to

miljan

Dust has finally settled on the “Primal censorship” drama. That’s good to see, but I don’t want to sweep this episode under the rug. It is probably appropriate to do a post mortem, assess what has happened and see what we can learn. Let’s make sure that Nostr is a better place after this episode.

Two weeks ago, Primal’s trending algorithm was attacked by bots. The attacker generated hundreds of thousands of reactions, propping his note to the top of our trending feed. At the time, our only defence was a simple “can’t trend” list, so we put the attacker on it. He immediately posted on Nostr, accusing us of censorship, but his note never took off. The attacker then selected a few well liked Nostr accounts and started stuffing the ballot box for them. We saw a bunch of bogus notes with massive bot engagement, so we resorted to the only blunt tool we had. The attacker jumped on the opportunity to publicize the fact that some well liked accounts were being suppressed on Primal and accused us of “shadowbanning”. The whole thing exploded on Nostr.

What followed was a pretty tough week for Primal. Many of our users turned against us. They took the idea of shadowbanning seriously, as they should. Most feedback was in good spirits, people making fun of Primal via memes. But we also got a fair bit of hate from complete strangers, which was super-weird. All in all, Nostr users were clear about what they think of censorship. This was the Nostr immune system reacting. Being on the receiving end of it really sucked, but still it’s beautiful to see!

The crazy part is that those “shadowbanned” accounts were actually perfectly visible throughout the entire Primal site. They had *exactly* the same level of visibility as they do on Damus, Snort, Coracle, and other Nostr clients. They just couldn’t show up in our trending bar. I tried to explain, but there was little room for nuance with the drama in full swing.

So we decided to disengage temporarily, focus on building, and let our product do the talking. We made our trending algorithm more resistant to bots and removed everyone from the “can’t trend” list. We also built a new content moderation system for Nostr, giving complete control to the user. This is our best take on how to do content moderation on such a radically open network. I cover the features and our reasoning in my blog post below.

So Primal is strictly a better product after this episode. But what about Nostr itself?

Attacks can be useful. While they disrupt our systems and really suck for us and our users, they do force us to improve and become more competent at operating in an adversarial environment. However, we should be careful about making it socially acceptable for Nostr devs to attack other projects in broad daylight. That’s not the most productive way to collaborate. It also creates weird vibes which I think we don’t want here. Nostr is in its infancy and the way we act will set the tone for things to come. There is so much to build and we are all working as fast as we can. At Primal we build open source software and run services for Nostr. If you don’t like the way something works, fork it and do your own thing. If you want to contribute, we accept PRs. If you have found a vulnerability, there are multiple good ways to disclose it.

As for Nostr users, I think you all reacted perfectly. Push back hard at any whiff of censorship. When in doubt, mercilessly create memes, point out things that are wrong, and don’t let up. Even if the target is Primal.

If Primal is real, it can stand the pressure. 🤙💜

https://habla.news/u/miljan@primal.net/1693416828339

VikiSecrets 2y ago

Trending algorithms will always be gamed and also lead to centralization, always the same accounts are advertised on trending, big accounts become bigger this way until they have an oligopoly.

Replying to Carlos

Do you have an opinion on #hive vs #nostr ? I ask because hive has been around longer yet it is my impression nostr is making more waves. What do you think?

VikiSecrets 2y ago

good question, both have pros & cons, #nostr is facing similar issues regarding content moderation and we have to see how the debate will play out on nostr. The bigger the network gets, the bigger the pressure on relays and front-ends to censor content, deal with spam, account farming, illegal content etc. Especially front-ends could become the weak spot.

Replying to

jack

though I appreciate they exist, I’ve never used mute or block (which is a false construct).

VikiSecrets 2y ago

you mean block not mute? on an individual level it is useful to have tools to mute other users in my opinion, even block to moderate one's own notes.

Replying to

ignacio

#Bluesky #moderation https://nostr.build/av/f014e68fb44f21cb64d640f0d948e9a3574e99d16e0c35ef3d3f282c120e4d73.mov

VikiSecrets 2y ago

Cool approach, but who is maintaining the list? Central authority? Will users care to check their active lists?

Replying to

Toni

Had a conversation about Nostr with someone.

They raised an interesting question - How would Nostr deal with harmful content?

As far as I know nothing stops this type of content appearing on Nostr.

Let’s say, someone starts posting harmful content on Nostr. How would we deal with it?

#censorship #content #moderation #nostr

VikiSecrets 2y ago

Relays and front-ends will start to moderate, or being even forced to censor content.

Replying to

Guy Swann

Just went through a big follower list and followed everyone based on their latest note, but only if it was less than a week old.

Looking for more follows from people who are actually sort of active up here. Which good ones am I missing? 👇🏻👇🏻

VikiSecrets 2y ago

follow #vikisecrets for fun facts and secrets about crypto and other stuff

VikiSecrets 2y ago

This is how content moderation works on #hive, the first blockchain-based, decentralized social media:

Content moderation on Hive is done on different levels.

Individually via following and muting accounts. Most decentralized approach. Be your own algorithm. Similar to Nostr.

Then there are also subbreddit-like "communities" with moderators and admins. semi-decentralized. Similar to Reddit.

Rewards are distributed with up and downvotes, only after 7 days upvotes become irreversible.

One big account, hive watchers, enforces some anti reward abuse policy, but the content is still stored immutably on a blockchain.

In extreme cases, illegal content is filtered at the front-end level. Several front-ends.

Downvotes are quite controversial but help minimize spam, plagiarized content, account farming etc.

https://peakd.com/hive-199963/@vikisecrets/vienna-hive-meetup-content-moderation-on-hive-pros-and-cons-of-downvotes-next-meetup-sept-28th-2023#comments

#hive #socialmedia #nostr #reddit #moderation #crypto #vikisecrets

VikiSecrets 2y ago

Worldcoin is ironically not borderless and probably does not scale well. If you live in the EU it is basically impossible to verify your World ID with an orb.

Good luck finding an orb 🙈

https://worldcoin.org/find-orb

#worldcoin #blockchain #scaling #crypto

VikiSecrets 2y ago

Damus needs hashtag to find a user #vikisecrets

VikiSecrets 2y ago

Is Worldcoin a scam? What actual use-case is Worldcoin solving online?

What does it solve that cannot be accomplished by 2FA or Bitcoin keys with funds?

Distinguishing bots from humans online is hard, how can you be sure that an Iris-scanned Worldcoin ID is not used by a bot online? The human gets the World ID, but then the ID is used by a bot online.

So the only thing remaining is the uniquiness part. But humans could theoretically resell their IDs on the black market. Bot farms could be build by buying IDs from other users. Local Orbs could be hacked to produce more World IDs than humans. But it would add additional cost, that's true.

What do you think? Is it a scam or legitimate use case?

https://peakd.com/hive-167922/@vikisecrets/is-worldcoin-a-scam-what-actual-use-case-is-wordlcoin-solving-online

#worldcoin #openai #crypto #orbs #security #hive #deutsch

VikiSecrets 2y ago

Spotted this cool artwork yesterday nearby the #einundzwanzig Bitcoin meetup in Vienna 🤩 (Strandbar Hermann)

#einundzwanzig #bitcoin #meetup #vienna #wien #streetart #art #photography #nostr

VikiSecrets 2y ago

The Central Bank of Austria published how much CO2 they produce, but guess what, they didn't include the energy consumption/co2 emissions for the fiat system as a whole, just co2 for running the building + business trips basically.

#esg #co2 #centralbanks #oenb #energy