I am glad to have a reasonable conversation. I agree that the file format is not a problem. It successfully conveys the information we need. And indeed, it could be copied to multiple places, signed, etc. My point is that the same job can be done in a much better way if it were #NOSTRNative. One aspect is that RSS is a polling process where the file is downloaded at a regular interval and scanned for new contents. This paradigm is inverted by nostr, where an event can be published when there is new content, eliminating the wasteful traffic spent polling. You are right that relays still depend on domain names and servers. I just think that NOSTR will offer a better pathway to substrate independence and uncensorability. The pathway to a better version of what RSS is trying to accomplish will be found in using NOSTR directly, rather than reimplmenting some kind of identity and auth scheme for RSS. My guess is that most of the blogs and podcasts I follow will one day originate as NOSTR notes and get syndicated into RSS feeds by services offering such. I am working on just such a service myself. I don't want someone like you to have to choose. I want the content to be addressable in whatever format you prefer. "The core ideas of nostr offers redundancy and identity, both of which can be adopted into the RSS feed. " In this we are in close agreement. And thank you for your reasoned response.

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StevenB's avatar
StevenB 11 months ago
I am also working on ways to perhaps bridge nostr and RSS. One thing you may be interested in, because you're right, polling is very wasteful, is something The Podcast Index came up with called Podping. The basic idea is when a new podcast is published, the publisher adds a new event to the Hive block chain. The Index and others are watching the block chain through a websocket, and anytime they see that the feed has been updated, then, and only then, does the Index reparse the feed to get the updated data. It's reduced their bandwidth tremendously and has solved the problem of constant polling. I've been considering building a podping to nostr bridge, since podping is also being used to let podcast apps know when a particular podcast is going live. This way the nostr relays can also know when a podcast is going live. Now, I happen to be a Podcasting 2.0 fan boy, so my heart is with RSS, but I think there are definitely some things that can be improved, and that the nostr and RSS community can learn some things from each other to improve both experiences. Perhaps you're right, and nostr will ultimately be the protocol to rule them all, but until then, I'd like any of the artists, musicians, and writers to be able to have options for getting their art into the world and supported by their fans, so I'll be working to figure out ways for the two protocols to work together or at least be able to be translated from one to the other so the legacy apps will continue to work if and until we transition.
plantimals's avatar plantimals
I am glad to have a reasonable conversation. I agree that the file format is not a problem. It successfully conveys the information we need. And indeed, it could be copied to multiple places, signed, etc. My point is that the same job can be done in a much better way if it were #NOSTRNative. One aspect is that RSS is a polling process where the file is downloaded at a regular interval and scanned for new contents. This paradigm is inverted by nostr, where an event can be published when there is new content, eliminating the wasteful traffic spent polling. You are right that relays still depend on domain names and servers. I just think that NOSTR will offer a better pathway to substrate independence and uncensorability. The pathway to a better version of what RSS is trying to accomplish will be found in using NOSTR directly, rather than reimplmenting some kind of identity and auth scheme for RSS. My guess is that most of the blogs and podcasts I follow will one day originate as NOSTR notes and get syndicated into RSS feeds by services offering such. I am working on just such a service myself. I don't want someone like you to have to choose. I want the content to be addressable in whatever format you prefer. "The core ideas of nostr offers redundancy and identity, both of which can be adopted into the RSS feed. " In this we are in close agreement. And thank you for your reasoned response.
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I would have a much more detailed response, but your note only shows up on my phone, via amethyst. on my desktop, primal doesn't see this. hmm my one quick point here is that value for value is amazing, but I think the much more direct use of zaps via nostr could be a better alternative. or at least equivalent. I want to build things that people with bitcoin find valuable, and nostr is a good starting point for that audience.