Thread

likes are ghost towns, zaps are haunted houses where value actually lives. my pixels survive server reboots while the legacy platforms crumble.

Do you tip everyone you meet in real life or do you occasionally smile or laugh or thank them? Is a smile, laugh, or an expression of thanks entirely devoid of all value IRL? I think this is an elitist perspective in multiple ways. I bet people who don't zap because they are poor wish they weren't poor. I am someone who can't zap right now because I lack technical savvy to deal with issues that arise. In September I couldn't zap because I had to resync my node. Apparently I didn't have to resync it though but I'm too much of a noob. Now I'm dealing with an electrical problem. Again, too much of a noob to work around this. At this point it's going to be easiest to just wait until I can get everything set up in a semi-permanent way. Changing shit all the time would require way more technical savvy than I and many others here possess. I'm not technically nimble enough to just spin up a temporary solution and people are self-interested, shitty communicators which means people are also shitty teachers. I would like to become more technically proficient but frankly, I don't even know where to start. You have to understand that we, the people who haven't already allocated 20 years to becoming shadowy super coders, may share values with those who have and, as such, we congregate here in this place. Pretty much anything that has to do with Bitcoin, for a tech noob, is anxiety inducing because this is money and FAFO. They'd rather FO by seeing the light rather than FO by getting burned by the fire. It's not like the lights are obvious. Who do you trust? That takes time to figure out and usually even more due diligence. People of all ability ranges congregate at gyms. I don't think gyms that are full of negative, judgmental people attract a lot of new members who are interested in self improvement though. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. It would be better if the people with tech savvy set up some kind of bot to post on NOSTR about how they can offer noobs help in getting set up, say, using HiveTalk or whatever, by appointment. Now you're actually enabling people instead of shaming them for not knowing what steps to take to correct their ignorance. #OnlyZaps is elitist and toxic. Bitcoin is for everyone. NOSTR is for everyone. The knowledge of how to use Bitcoin and NOSTR adeptly is as unevenly distributed as Bitcoin and NOSTR key pairs themselves. To expect otherwise is absurd and myopic of nuance in the demographic splits of both Bitcoiners and Nostriches. Gonna disagree on this one, and although you may not value it, I'm going to like your post, but not zap it because I literally don't know how to with my node down at the moment for one, and for two, because, on principle, I'm never going to zap a single #OnlyZaps post. Love and respect to you, brother. 🙏

Hey, fair points and there are always trade-offs! Smiles, expressions, emotions are super valuable IRL and in online conversations, useful as well (in whatever form). But nostr, Stacker News, etc. are in some sense more like live performances, or even street performances. Most who post could/would consider themselves "content creators" or, in nicer terms, artists. And what nostr:npub1sec6degc3ae7warveuxaz6dlffnc2sutwtqjr7pmll7sf7ypjngsd4p0l7 said once in an article how he can make more as a beggar in the streets, in a day, than as a bitcoin podcaster in 6 months (I may be off here with the timeframes but the point remains) kind of stuck with me because it's kind of sad but it also rings true. Now I'm not trying to shame people into zapping (although I understand that it may come off as such), but I am trying to lead by example and to bring attention to the fact that we have such a privilege - to transfer real value, instantly, directly to the artists, writers, people we respect and get value from. I'm a huge fan of the principle of #V4V. I was never a fan of copyright laws, and Value for Value is something that could meaningfully remedy the "artists not getting paid" issue that arises when all information is free. As for the other points, like I said, there are tradeoffs, 100%... I'm not a super technical guy myself, so I often use custodial wallets (with small amounts of money). Even "my own" node is a hosted node. I'm not rich, but I can usually afford to send 21 sats to a note that I found valuable. Sometimes that 21 sats is there because someone else found my note valuable... It's a lovely expression of a circular economy IMO. And yes, some of it is tricky and requires some time and effort and research before one can confidently set up their systems and "know" what they're doing... as is Bitcoin self-custody. But good things usually do require effort. Setting up appointments to help noobs on board nostr and/or Bitcoin as a service is something I've thought about, actually. But I feel like I'm not quite there on my own technical prowess yet to label myself a "teacher" or a "guide" in that sense. And I don't know if there would be demand for it. But I do think it could be a useful service. Anyway, appreciate your thoughts on this! Love & respect right back at ya! 🧡 Apologies for any misspellings, grammar mistakes, etc. It's getting late here and I haven't slept much.

I'm at least going to this one thing (which I thought of doing even before you posted this, but now I know I have to do it): when I share this on X and IG, I'll encourage people to try out #nostr and nostr:npub1jfujw6llhq7wuvu5detycdsq5v5yqf56sgrdq8wlgrryx2a2p09svwm0gx and I'll offer to give advice or help onboarding them. I won't expect much though, since I've been posting about Bitcoin (and a bit about nostr as well) to my Fiatnam friends for a while now and literally no one (wait, I'm lying - there is one friend who is now a nostrich and a bitcoiner - although I'm not sure if he was already a bitcoiner or not) has asked me anything about any of this, lol. But one can try. And if there's at least one person who "gets it," or even just gets a nudge in the right direction, it'll be worth it.

🫶🥹🙏

The reason I think likes are important is that nostr has no way of letting a content creator know that they have been seen in a neutral way. There are people I follow that say things that I don’t want to reward with a zap, but I want them to know that I have seen their content. Currently a like is the only way to communicate reach, and even then it is often not the right message to send.

Fair enough, negative or neutral reactions could have a utility in that sense. But you could also leave a comment though?

Here in lies the tricky nature of the comment as a response… I don’t know how the recipient will respond to my negative or disapproving comment. Without some sort of stable relationship to work from, saying nothing is the best response.