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> NOSTR and Mastodon should never be left out of any serious research I'm a nerd and I've never heard of NOSTR. What I've heard about Mastodon suggests strong

> NOSTR and Mastodon should never be left out of any serious research I'm a nerd and I've never heard of NOSTR. What I've heard about Mastodon suggests strong "Desktop Linux circa 2000" vibes: Too much fiddling around for too little gain. If I can't be bothered to deal with either of these, the normies certainly cannot.

eqvinox 1y ago
No idea where you get your gossip, the only real problem I'm aware of with Mastodon is search functionality being useless garbage. Not even sure what you would "fiddle" with on a social platform? Or are you talking about self hosting?
- tialaramex 1y ago
  As with the history of Linux, there is a certain kind of person who cannot imagine any middle ground between "I buy only Microsoft-approved products" and "For each named server we start with LFS and it typically takes 6-8 weeks to customize the build for that server". In this space it's "I use Twitter" and "After sitting down with the protocol documentation I reckon in January 2026 I will launch my own custom Mastodon server". No middle ground at all. No "Maybe I could join this instance of like-minded individuals?" or even "I found a turnkey solution for $10 per month", it's either 100% blood oath loyalty to Elon's service or they have to write all the software by hand themselves.
  - fragmede 1y ago
    Specifically, https://mathstodon.xyz/ https://mathstodon.xyz/ seems to be pretty popular among the math scientists I know, https://biologists.social/ https://biologists.social/ for biologists, computer security folk seem to be using https://infosec.exchange/ https://infosec.exchange/ Don't look at mastodon as a whole, look at specific popular servers and their niche.
nunobrito 1y ago
Most nerds I know wouldn't see obstacles to try out either Mastodon nor NOSTR because they'd be naturally curious about them. Mastodon works as intended and grows reasonably well. NOSTR is quite frankly one of the most relevant innovations on open source forum/communities from the past two decades. Both serve similar purposes (build online communities) but the while Mastodon uses a traditional server with a federation on top, NOSTR uses the concept of relay. In essence, your texts never belong to the owner of a server, you send them to any of a thousand volunteer maintained relays and your audience reads them from there. Your identity remains the same, anyone can verify the authenticity of your texts and this is quite a feature on a time that digital censorship increases.
- dreamcompiler 1y ago
  Interesting. NOSTR sounds a bit like Usenet.
  - nunobrito 1y ago
    Yes, very similar. Main difference is using public/private keys instead of email addresses.
- gompertz 1y ago
  This comment single handedly caused me to sink 4 hours yesterday into exploring nostr and getting lost in it. I agree with your two decade sentiment, great technology.
  - nunobrito 1y ago
    Happy you enjoyed it.

eqvinox 1y ago

No idea where you get your gossip, the only real problem I'm aware of with Mastodon is search functionality being useless garbage. Not even sure what you would "fiddle" with on a social platform? Or are you talking about self hosting?

tialaramex 1y ago
As with the history of Linux, there is a certain kind of person who cannot imagine any middle ground between "I buy only Microsoft-approved products" and "For each named server we start with LFS and it typically takes 6-8 weeks to customize the build for that server". In this space it's "I use Twitter" and "After sitting down with the protocol documentation I reckon in January 2026 I will launch my own custom Mastodon server". No middle ground at all. No "Maybe I could join this instance of like-minded individuals?" or even "I found a turnkey solution for $10 per month", it's either 100% blood oath loyalty to Elon's service or they have to write all the software by hand themselves.
- fragmede 1y ago
  Specifically, https://mathstodon.xyz/ https://mathstodon.xyz/ seems to be pretty popular among the math scientists I know, https://biologists.social/ https://biologists.social/ for biologists, computer security folk seem to be using https://infosec.exchange/ https://infosec.exchange/ Don't look at mastodon as a whole, look at specific popular servers and their niche.

nunobrito 1y ago

Most nerds I know wouldn't see obstacles to try out either Mastodon nor NOSTR because they'd be naturally curious about them. Mastodon works as intended and grows reasonably well. NOSTR is quite frankly one of the most relevant innovations on open source forum/communities from the past two decades. Both serve similar purposes (build online communities) but the while Mastodon uses a traditional server with a federation on top, NOSTR uses the concept of relay. In essence, your texts never belong to the owner of a server, you send them to any of a thousand volunteer maintained relays and your audience reads them from there. Your identity remains the same, anyone can verify the authenticity of your texts and this is quite a feature on a time that digital censorship increases.

dreamcompiler 1y ago
Interesting. NOSTR sounds a bit like Usenet.
- nunobrito 1y ago
  Yes, very similar. Main difference is using public/private keys instead of email addresses.
gompertz 1y ago
This comment single handedly caused me to sink 4 hours yesterday into exploring nostr and getting lost in it. I agree with your two decade sentiment, great technology.
- nunobrito 1y ago
  Happy you enjoyed it.