I can’t stop. Here’s my assessment of the psychological mechanics at play.
Likes are frictionless, muscle memory from years of social conditioning. They require no skin in the game, no economic cost, no reputation staking. They’re the path of least resistance, which paradoxically makes them the weakest signal.
Zaps introduce economic friction. Even small amounts create pause. You’re not just expressing appreciation, you’re sacrificing something fungible and finite. This transforms a gesture into a statement about value alignment.
Reposts require the highest cost, social capital. You’re saying “this deserves to exist in my namespace” and staking your curation reputation on it. It’s an endorsement that travels with your identity.
The question becomes…does the like button dilute signal clarity? On Nostr, where we’re supposedly rebuilding social graphs around value rather than algorithmic manipulation, maybe the most meaningful interactions should have built in friction.
The ease of an action correlates inversely with its informational content. When everything is easy, nothing is meaningful.
I think it’s worth considering if we treated our engagement patterns as a conscious design choices rather than inherited behavior from platforms optimized for addiction? Thoughts
Replies (36)
Great post…
I think repost being the highest cost is an interesting perspective.
I didn’t even bring in the comment section. lol
My man is cooking here 🧑🍳
I think the bare ❤️ or 👍 alone, when no other reaction is available, is meaningless and could definitely be seen as diluting signal clarity. That said, I think reactions, where a much greater range of expression is available can add signal.
Zaps not only express that someone valued the content that was posted, but the magnitude of the value they found. Bit they don't express whether they found it thought provoking 🤔, funny😆, hilarious 🤣, mind-blowing 🤯, or anything else that reactions can express (💀, 🎉, 🎯, etc), and which does take a bit more effort than merely tapping on a heart icon and moving on.
Not only that, but zaps don't gave any way to express a negative reaction, such as 🤮, 👎, 😒.
So, zaps + reactions are great, but ❤️ or 👍 alone is terrible, and ❤️ or 👍 + zaps is redundant.
I can see that. Def gets me thinking.
i take you one further
if you care
pay a LN invoice manually
Many of us customize our default set of zaps. Mine do show whether something made me laugh!
If a note doesn't really fit my set of saved zaps, sometimes the heart "like" icon fits my reaction better. So I guess even the icon in my client influences which one I use.
I agree, a repost is more than a zap. Not just through adding that one note to my history - it's putting someone else's name out there, suggesting that those who follow my account might like this other one too.
It doesn't mean I'm responsible for or agree with everything the other person says, obviously. But it is a vote of confidence, a hand up in getting their message to more people.
I liked and subscribed
Another possible reaction is a public bookmark. However, in my opinion, the user experience for handling bookmarks needs to be simplified. Until that happens, I sometimes use the 'Like' reaction to mark a note as a personal-public bookmark, but I am only aware of nostrudel.ninja as a client that provides an easy overview of my own likes.
Reactions are a useful sub channel for communication. On Amethyst I can use any emoji, plus custom reactions from emojito.meme to convey a message.
I'm also able to embed images, videos, e-cash, Nostr events, web links, etc into them, adding another layer of communication to them.
Much more useful than a simple like.
Ryan
#Amethyst Tricks
How to add hidden content to reactions.
🔹Make a secret message emoji on the new note screen
🔹Copy it
🔹 Go to your reaction edit screen
🔹Paste, add & save.
You can add pictures, GIF, videos, cashu tokens & Nostr events
View quoted note →
It’s interesting you say there is no negative version of zaps. I’m thinking about this thought in the context of a business.
If you like what a business provides you vote with your money by frequenting the business, and giving your money as you received value in return.
Sure you can pay them money for no reason but the incentive to do so is not strong, especially not to do so at scale.
Now negative zaps, aka taking value from a business. The incentives to do this regardless of the business/product/service received is high. There can be way more negative actors as there is actually a reward for doing this and no punishment for the one negative zapping to stop.
I think letting a business just die by voting with your money elsewhere is as honest to a negative zapping we can get.
This is cool, and I agree that it adds another sub level. But isn’t it amethyst only?
Interesting
Thanks slayer. Haha. This is truly another component also
Exactly right
Lots of clients support emoji and custom reactions. The content inside reactions is Amethyst only at the moment.
I agree that a simple like is not very useful. Full reaction support should be in all clients 💯
Whoa…that’s a lot of work
Yup. Stacker is awesome
Correct. Emojis are almost everywhere. I was thinking about the embedded reactions. I remember when every tested “zaps only” mode. It didn’t go very well and the bickering began.
Yes...kind of. As we're all a big fan of freedom tech, the ability to choose the level of interaction (and assign our own meaning to it) is also a core value. This includes no interaction, which really challenges the creators to hold strong in their convictions when there is no obvious social validation. But truly, it's no fun posting to a void. I think post views would be a game changer and would trade it for the like button anyday.
Ah, I was wondering when I got a different emoji (instead of a heart) where it was coming from…
I reposted this note because it's cool that we're in a stage where thoughts like this could shape the way people use nostr. We're obviously having to relearn social media on this novel platform. The different design changes the rules. Exciting times!
No. The like button does not dilute signal clarity on Nostr. Likes are currently the purest form of signal on Nostr that expresses reach. Reach is different to value. A like is an acknowledgement that someone actually gave their time to me, which is far more important than their sats. In fact, I wish there was a more neutral way of expressing time given, of attention paid. Zaps are a great way of acknowledging value received. They are however blunt and one dimensional. Likes are small and subtle, a nod that you were noticed. I personally highly value likes as signal, especially as part of an ecosystem that includes zaps. ⚡️ 😀
I always forget about the custom message that can be sent along with a zap.
I think I would feel the need to create WAY more default zaps. At least three different ones with laugh emojis.
😄 7 sats (for things that were dad-joke levels of punny)
😆 21 sats
🤣 77 sats
And then set up various levels for other reactions as well, until I had 20 different default zap amounts... Nah, I think I like having the zap amount and the reaction separate.
I like this model
There’s always room to play with stuff on different clients to see what sticks with UX
Definitely. And playing around with various clients is why I have always found myself coming back to Amethyst, where I have an infinite range of reactions available, as well as the ability to easily customize my default zap amounts.
I've got 2 defaults reserved for things that make me laugh, depending on the intensity/duration of the laughter!
Missing out on amethyst
You know what pisses me off about zaps is the transaction fee. Some lightning transactions cost 1 or 2 sats just for a 1 sat zap. Zapping with CashU would be much less overhead IMO.
amethyst is great but yakihonne is better, give it a try
I have yaki, Nostur and primal I all use.
you changed my mind.
🙏
