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The sites design is very aesthetically pleasing, well done on that front. Something that put me off a bit was immediately seeing bitcoin influencer content aft

The sites design is very aesthetically pleasing, well done on that front. Something that put me off a bit was immediately seeing bitcoin influencer content after loading the page.

jgilias 3y ago
That’s just the nature of Nostr at the moment. It’s very Bitcoin adjacent. There’s significant overlap between Nostr and Bitcoin developers. Also, Bitcoin (through Lightning) is the currency used on Nostr for anything and everything. I can totally see how that’s off putting for normal people though.
- alkonaut 3y ago
  It's so off putting I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. I wouldn't even curiously browse a landing page of an otherwise interesting project beyond the point I notice that something is mildly "cryptocurrency-adjacent", or it becomes obvious that it has involvement from devs who also enjoy working on blockchains. Thanks for the heads up.
  - wlll 3y ago
    Same sentiment here. Something to compete with YouTube would be great but I'm not going anywhere near anything crypto related, the whole ecosystem stinks to me.
    - bubersson 3y ago
      I can honestly report that big majority of Nostr users are very much against "crypto". Just ask on nostr "Do people here support crypto and all the various blockchains?" and you will see for yourself.
  - jgilias 3y ago
    It shouldn’t really be much of a surprise though that people hacking on decentralized value transfer where identity is asserted using asymmetric key cryptography were the ones coming up with the idea to use a similar approach for information transfer.
  - cesarvarela 3y ago
    Can I ask why? Beyond the "crypto grift," a blockchain-based social network might offer some benefits: - permissionless - (no moderation) - means for auto solvency - (we are not the product) - interoperability - (multiple clients, forks, etc.) - privacy
    - emmo 3y ago
      You can't brush off the "crypto grift" though. That's the sticking point, and it's a very big one.
      - npoc 3y ago
        Nostr is extremely anti-crypto and pro-bitcoin. The trouble is that most people don't appreciate the distinction, they will in time but at this stage, without deeply researching and understanding the topic, most just include bitcoin in the snake pit of "cRyptO"
    - wlll 3y ago
      Sure. "no moderation", massive problem. I'm not hosting my (admittedly limited) content on a platform that lets my videos get posted in proximity to scams, CSAM etc. If I'm going to ask people to go to somewhere to see my videos (again, admittedly limited) then I'm not going to want them to be stumbling across that stuff. YouTube isn't getting it right, they're allowing bad shit (poor quality, scams, excessive shrieking) and taking people down for spurious DMCA takedowns, but the answer isn't "no moderation at all", that's not the problem. As a user I don't sign up to somthing because it allows anything, doesn't take anything down, I sign up beacause it has the things I want to watch. I'm not a character in cryptonomicon or snow crash.
      - cesarvarela 3y ago
        More precisely, I mean no "centralized moderation." You can moderate at client level whatever you want. There could be shared lists of non-acceptable users/content based on your world views (like AdBlock but for users).
    - 3y ago
bogwog 3y ago
That's the reason I personally avoid Nostr. I know it's unfair because Nostr itself is actually a cool protocol that has nothing to do with bitcoin, but the stench of that is hard to wash off. I wouldn't want to build something that becomes associated with bitcoin just because of the name of the protocol. It's like whenever there was a reddit/twitter/etc alternative some years ago following outrage, it'd get flooded with some of the worst people on the internet. Voat comes to mind as a pretty competent reddit clone that had potential, until it got overrun with nazis/racists and other kinds of losers. I was very close to releasing an app for that one, but abandoned it once it became clear the direction the userbase was going.
- deified 3y ago
  Yeah. I love these new approaches to social networking and especially decentralized ones, but after joining Nostr and experiencing it for a while I got so tired of all the crypto talk. I'm pro crypto, I just don't want to only read about crypto
  - treyd 3y ago
    That's a huge indicator to me that Fedi is wayyy ahead any of the other "alt social media" projects. That normal, non-technical people use it to talk about normal real-life things in their day wayy more than they use it to just talk about how much they like Fedi / the thing / related thing. At least Bluesky as reached that bar too, but Nostr and none of the other crypto-y social media have.
- poulpy123 3y ago
  I had a look at some nostr apps, and I was extremely impressed by the speed and the fact that even decentralised it seems that all nodes are integrated (not like mastodon). But I can't get over the bitcoin scam everywhere
  - npoc 3y ago
    In what way is bitcoin a scam, and gold isn't?

The sites design is very aesthetically pleasing, well done on that front. Something that put me off a bit was immediately seeing bitcoin influencer content after loading the page.

jgilias 3y ago

That’s just the nature of Nostr at the moment. It’s very Bitcoin adjacent. There’s significant overlap between Nostr and Bitcoin developers. Also, Bitcoin (through Lightning) is the currency used on Nostr for anything and everything. I can totally see how that’s off putting for normal people though.

alkonaut 3y ago
It's so off putting I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole. I wouldn't even curiously browse a landing page of an otherwise interesting project beyond the point I notice that something is mildly "cryptocurrency-adjacent", or it becomes obvious that it has involvement from devs who also enjoy working on blockchains. Thanks for the heads up.
- wlll 3y ago
  Same sentiment here. Something to compete with YouTube would be great but I'm not going anywhere near anything crypto related, the whole ecosystem stinks to me.
  - bubersson 3y ago
    I can honestly report that big majority of Nostr users are very much against "crypto". Just ask on nostr "Do people here support crypto and all the various blockchains?" and you will see for yourself.
- jgilias 3y ago
  It shouldn’t really be much of a surprise though that people hacking on decentralized value transfer where identity is asserted using asymmetric key cryptography were the ones coming up with the idea to use a similar approach for information transfer.
- cesarvarela 3y ago
  Can I ask why? Beyond the "crypto grift," a blockchain-based social network might offer some benefits: - permissionless - (no moderation) - means for auto solvency - (we are not the product) - interoperability - (multiple clients, forks, etc.) - privacy
  - emmo 3y ago
    You can't brush off the "crypto grift" though. That's the sticking point, and it's a very big one.
    - npoc 3y ago
      Nostr is extremely anti-crypto and pro-bitcoin. The trouble is that most people don't appreciate the distinction, they will in time but at this stage, without deeply researching and understanding the topic, most just include bitcoin in the snake pit of "cRyptO"
  - wlll 3y ago
    Sure. "no moderation", massive problem. I'm not hosting my (admittedly limited) content on a platform that lets my videos get posted in proximity to scams, CSAM etc. If I'm going to ask people to go to somewhere to see my videos (again, admittedly limited) then I'm not going to want them to be stumbling across that stuff. YouTube isn't getting it right, they're allowing bad shit (poor quality, scams, excessive shrieking) and taking people down for spurious DMCA takedowns, but the answer isn't "no moderation at all", that's not the problem. As a user I don't sign up to somthing because it allows anything, doesn't take anything down, I sign up beacause it has the things I want to watch. I'm not a character in cryptonomicon or snow crash.
    - cesarvarela 3y ago
      More precisely, I mean no "centralized moderation." You can moderate at client level whatever you want. There could be shared lists of non-acceptable users/content based on your world views (like AdBlock but for users).
  - 3y ago

bogwog 3y ago

That's the reason I personally avoid Nostr. I know it's unfair because Nostr itself is actually a cool protocol that has nothing to do with bitcoin, but the stench of that is hard to wash off. I wouldn't want to build something that becomes associated with bitcoin just because of the name of the protocol. It's like whenever there was a reddit/twitter/etc alternative some years ago following outrage, it'd get flooded with some of the worst people on the internet. Voat comes to mind as a pretty competent reddit clone that had potential, until it got overrun with nazis/racists and other kinds of losers. I was very close to releasing an app for that one, but abandoned it once it became clear the direction the userbase was going.

deified 3y ago
Yeah. I love these new approaches to social networking and especially decentralized ones, but after joining Nostr and experiencing it for a while I got so tired of all the crypto talk. I'm pro crypto, I just don't want to only read about crypto
- treyd 3y ago
  That's a huge indicator to me that Fedi is wayyy ahead any of the other "alt social media" projects. That normal, non-technical people use it to talk about normal real-life things in their day wayy more than they use it to just talk about how much they like Fedi / the thing / related thing. At least Bluesky as reached that bar too, but Nostr and none of the other crypto-y social media have.
poulpy123 3y ago
I had a look at some nostr apps, and I was extremely impressed by the speed and the fact that even decentralised it seems that all nodes are integrated (not like mastodon). But I can't get over the bitcoin scam everywhere
- npoc 3y ago
  In what way is bitcoin a scam, and gold isn't?