I'd say without the gamification, but that would be false. Quite easy to get attention in the same ways.

i agree but i also think this is just a flaw in the original social media. one that nostr does not have to repeat. it seems that the more popular someone is on trad social media, the less they are willing to use it 'like they used to'. they become big, they enjoy the influence but they must retreat to other methods of communication 'with their friends'.. isn't social media for being social? i think so. after all, we are social creatures and the queston is, if we arent here to be social, then what are we doing here? if my theory is correct, big influencers would engage more, if their apps were better, their experience more in their control. many who are already influencers, this is all they've known and they had already stopped 'being social' before they even got here 😎

Much easier. Post a picture of your bare tits, some vegetables, be a dev of a popular client, or be well-known from someplace else, basically. Influencing for beginners. Or just be an honest gamer and offer sats for boosts. I actually respect that because they're like, "Okay, let's just cut the crap..."

Cannot with against tits

*cannot win

Its a super power in 2024

Yeah, same. Been hanging out on my own relay, where I know everyone. Unfortunately, most of the people I know don't use outboxes, so I've completely dropped off their screens. Oh well.

The nostr meta is fairly easy to play, not that it wouldn't be obvious and it's not interesting to follow, but it works. It is arguably somewhat incentivised by zaps. There's ebegging, which is too obvious, but then there is ebegging with a nostr-acceptable veneer. View quoted note → But even taking away the zap mechanics, there is also the quite horrible situation of having to appeal to the tastes of large owners accounts. Maybe less bad for people who happen to think along the same lines as them, be it ideolocally or humour etc. Maybe there's not enough upward mobility on nostr lol. Further compounded by the onboarding recommendations. More followers = More good, more followers = more read receipts, more read receipts = trending, and even more exposure. Most accounts have followers because they're carrying over clout from bitcointwitter, or theyre nostr devs (I don't mind this one acceptable actually), or they got here early and/or been blessed by the aforementioned for aligning with them somehow. A lot of the time. Stagnation. Meanwhile there I have actually found some notable new accounts quietly getting on with posting interesting stuff and looking for interesting stuff. If I may..... From the vaults:

Ha ha! That first meme goes so hard.

Zap Farming is probably more accurate for a lot of 'content' here. (By content I mean screenshots of twitter/Instagram explore page memes everyone in the world has seen 3 weeks ago except nostr uses lol).

Yeah, very difficult to just do your own thing, on here. Everything is setup, to encourage us all to follow and interact with a small handful of people, on a small handful of relays, using clients built by a small handful of devs. Extremely concentrated, ironically. Not living up to the potential, at all.

There is also a certain air of superiority on nostr, it's 'algo-free'. But what has filled the void of an algo isn't great either, sure it may be algo-free but it's certainly not free of the social media dynamics of parasocial behaviours and all the other inevitable stuff. I'm not saying this stuff can be avoided (it perhaps can in a Reddit /forum/topic client where following npubs-as-personalities is not/less of a thing). But yeah there seems to be not much interest in refreshing the trending/discovery tools. The assumption is still people want to find bitcointwitter personalities lol. (Probably sadly true).

It's a vicious cycle. Person not interested in BitcoinTwitter opens Nostr app, sees nothing but BitcoinTwitter, keeps seeing nothing but BitcoinTwitter, closes Nostr app. 😭

It's such an obvious problem (The Most Common Complaint) I have to wonder why clients haven't tried something different at onboarding? Probably because growth/retention is the main thing, and bitcointwitter people actually stay (because they have found bitcointwitter2 lol). The radio and permaculture communities are hopeful and should be amplified at onboarding (imo). Perhaps there is an idea that they are too niche, and the mythological normies from TikTok must be appealed to (they haven't even heard of Nostr and they're not coming any time soon lol). Meanwhile supposedly 'niche' Meshtastic content on YouTube can get millions of views. Permaculture and radio content is sort of venn diagram a bitcoin community thing (preppery type stuff). And the hope is the Venn diagrams of content and communities spreads further out. Whilst also battling against the bitcointwitter sloganeering putting lots of people off. 🤞

There is also a hope that the people who have taken a look around seen it's just bitcointwitter2 and left will one day come back and find Other Stuff. Maybe in a few years?

Another group with a lot of potential is actually orthodox (spelled with a small "o") Christians. There's no "bigger" social media aimed at serving them, and they are a large, highly-literate, politically-persecuted minority, so they tend to spend a lot of time online. We've been focusing on applications they might like, for that reason. Nostr seems like a good fit and they are over-represented here, already. Just no real "gathering place", yet. Hope #Alexandria can provide that.

Yes, absolutely. As a slight aside. I know he's a devisive figure and I've suggested this before but Jay Dyer (capitalised O Orthodox here) would be an almost perfect person to onboard. Large following, already a bitcoiner (he even buys shirts from lightning store lol), already accept (on-chain), regular slots on the alex jones show etc. I'm not saying people should agree with him or like him, but he seems an obvious choice of 'influencer' to have some sort of presence here. Even if it were just a client buying a regular promo slot on his YouTube if not. Who knows.

I know I don't nostr correctly. But I see your stuff so I'm okay for now.

+1

Yeah idk y'all. You can just do your own thing. The follower count doesn't even work. I would go as far as just remove it. I make cassettes. If I was to think "well, spotify has a much better way of deliver audio than cassette" on one hand that's true. But it's also incredibly lame and misses the point. So idk, I hear your points but it I think people are so used to an attitude of if I don't get instant feedback I delete this post or whatever. Nostr is a different medium and "the medium is the message."

I get what you mean. I am sort of arguing more about the mechanics of how to get visibility here. And it being geared towards a certain type of user or posting style, predominantly. I don't think I anyone expects instant feedback or followers or whatever. But I also think there should be other mechanisms to discovery than being from bitcointwitter, or appealing to the whims and tastes of Recommended Users (I'm being a bit hyperbolic here but you get my point).And it feels like there easily could be other mechanisms, but not so much the desire or urgency to actually put them in place. Again just a bit more hyperbole. If you came here and spoke about Other Things you cared about and got ignored, but got thrown a bone if you made a generic botcoin 'meme', that would shape behaviour and the platform generally. I'm obviously being extreme here, but this feels like a vague shape that forms here that hasn't changed much over time. Or something lol

You are absolutely correct. Also, this maybe a symptom of the personalities here rather than the technology. Most of us ideologically aligned. We get it. That means that bitcoin is the least interesting topic, or should be. It like being in a geriatric ward and talking about being old. That's the last thing they want to talk about it. So idk, I just try to follow anyone who posts anything that is somewhat different and gloss over the "we are all individuals" vegtable posts. And for me nostr is pretty enjoyable.

But yes, perhaps to you point if we had a tag "does not post about bitcoin" that would help discovery 🤣

I see it as tourettes lol. It is partly a transported over behaviour form bitcointwitter, it makes slightly more sense there as twitter has a vast userbase. It makes a lot less sense here and does look like a verbal tick or a popular catchphrase for an easy cheer. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

I would actually fail this too, cos I complain about this a lot lolol. But I'm willing to take that hit:):)

Both Spotify and cassettes deliver music. This is more like talking to yourself or talking to a group of people, who might respond and interact with you. Those are two completely different actions, not the same action done in two different ways. I don't see the point in social media without socializing. That's the sort of thing people do, whose neighbors appear on the 9 o'clock news, completely shell-shocked, to say, "He always seemed like a nice, young man. Kept himself to himself..."

One of my dreams is to be interviewed on the news just so I can say 'I always suspected that guy, the signs were there for everyone to see. He always called the Olympics team "Team GB". Who does that except someone burying people under their patio.'

I see it more from people who switch back and forth from x. The people who are OnlyNostr seem to have more normal conversations. Even when they talk about Bitcoin, they talk about it like normal humans do, and not like billboard signs. My own relay is nearly devoid of it, which I like. 😅

The only time I say GM is with specific reference to General Motors.

Maybe that is it. I don't really know, but seems possible. It's actually quite funny cos there has developed a sort of nostr script too lol. You see it most when interacting with ew people or new people ask reasonable questions like 'where is the content?' There is no algo here Welcome to freedomtech Maybe these are the only two I can think of..but you get what I mean..it's the sort of wishywashy thing Jack my post in a post-ayahuasca enema haze. No offence:):)

We are being social right now, what more can you ask for! 🤣

tbf, this was my first impressioned when I opened my first account on Apr of this year then left for 2 months. Lol

It used to be even worse. Hard to imagine that it was even worse. 😅 More and more of us are just refusing to give up and we just keep posting our stuff and whatever. At some point, we might reach critical mass.

indeed. I could not imagine that it was worse before lol I am glad fre in here have persevered. I am here almost 2 months now after I reactivate the my acct! I am also hoping to be build a more diverse content other than bittwitter! ☺️🤣

but jack & snowden has millions of adoring fans and couldnt get 1% of them to go to nostr

You might be conflating being social with being liked. Most people are seeking followers. The fact that the number is more than half bots does not in any way depreciate the number. When followers is the goal, that number being correct means a lot, right? I think people actually being social do not care about the number, but the quality of the interaction.