Yup, retention is a huge issue for sure. 15k daily user on this big ass planet is super low.

I buy this. There's some deeper issue.

It's practically nothing. That doesn't mean entirely pointless though. But I am interested in growing the protocol for my own sake. It's just more useful and interesting for me with greater diversity.

It's basically a glorified forum. The echo chamber refuses to acknowledge statistical data. I've had many unfollow me for just posting the data. But if you don't know where you're at—where you're starting from—then it makes it a hell of a lot harder to get where you're going. I love Nostr and have been here since Snowden joined years ago. I want to see it succeed. But the fact is... Nostr is still not ready for businesses, and it's still not getting the reach that many use social media for. Most here are not saying anything that would get them banned from larger platforms. So at this point, I still have to ask: If a dissident speaks truth to power on a protocol and no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound? #GrowNostr

We just need a user friendly client that isn't a twitter clone.

Agreed. Every app on Nostr is just a suckier knockoff of the original. The "killer app" that brings everyone to Nostr hasn't been made yet.

Not enough people know about Nostr yet, and it’s a steep learning curve for the average person. The average X/Facebook user doesn’t understand PKI, for example. The wallets are also a bit naff, I still can’t get mine to work.

Things take time. It took Mastodon years to get where it is now. It's still niche but solidly established. Maybe over time Mastodon users will move over to nostr when censorship on Mastodon starts hurting badly.

IMO the biggest reason is: Starting out on any social media platform, _without_ the algorithmmic feed that all big platforms have, is hard. Curating your own mix of accounts that are interesting but don't combine into a no-engage-worthy feeling fire hose of posts .. is hard work. Many people prefer opening their app and scrolling through the latest hot shit, without having to worry how to manually get a feed made up of things that are relevant to them.