Yes, but it's more nuanced than that. People can self host, pay, uncle jim, use hubs that are subsidized by nostr businesses, post to community relays, host follows/follower relays, etc. There's no single model, which is good for a self organizing network. We just have to make sure to provide the affordances for the network to organize.
Your intuition is right that there is no way the userbase can bear the cost of running the network, including relays, media servers and just the money that developers with kids to feed and bills to pay need to be able to devote their time to Nostr and not something else.
That would all amount to a ridiculous amount of money per user, but those things all are needed for the network to function.
And with the spam, ddos and even legal attacks that would come with larger scale those running costs would get even higher.
>So ALL those relays are supposed to keep my nodes, correct?
>> no, incorrect. No such expectation actually exist, it all depends on the relay, they are free to have whatever policy they want. But if what it stores and for how long it stores it (and to whom it makes it available).
>I guess the solution is that every user must run their own relay and just store *their own* notes (and potentially those of first and second order friends?).
>> something like that, but instead of going straight for the hyperbole of "every user", you could simply realize there is this vast spectrum op potiential relay types.
> Mainstream NPCs will never change those settings or even care to learn the word "relay".
>> you say that, but i am not buying it. The NPCs know what a website is, and they know how to find one. Relays could be seen as websites (but better). You project your understanding of relays from their marginalized status in current client UI/UX, probably combined with the fact you (nor much of anyone for that matter) have any intution for the paradigm just yet.
>People already refuse to pay for twitter, so they surely won't pay for Nostr.
>> dont compare Nostr with twitter directly; compare it with every webservice out there. How many people pay for twitter? Email? Etc. You get the level of service you pay for. Also note that a large part of the internet just exists without users paying directly for it, nor inderectly via advertising; but by then fact someone has some other reason to run a website (+the fact its cheap).
> isn't the point of Nostr that the data is stored *redundantly*,
>> sort of, the point is more that it CAN be stored redudantly, and things are not space nor time dependend. So its not just 'it CAN exists in multiple places' but also 'it can re-appear in whatever place in whatever moment in time' (note that neither are case with the current web, every reupload, both in location and time constitute a *new* thing being uploaded, not authentically the *same* thing)
>so actually we want *many* relays to store all the data.
>> no that does not follow. First of all not every bit of data is as important. Many notes could suffer the fate of being hosted on a single relay for only 24 hours and it would be fine. Other notes warrent to be coveted by many till the end of time due to their deep significance. Again, there is a spectrum here.
So to conclude: not every relay is the same, nor is every note the same; but any note could be on any relay, and it would be just the same.
