I don't really understand how Activity Pub has such good clients + web FEs, and how polished and nice Bluesky's app + FE at `bsky.app` is. While virtually all of Nostr's clients and FEs are really poorly designed, clunky, buggy, and generally not enjoyable to use.
I really wish I knew how to code/program because I'd honestly love to make a Nostr client in my own image.
Replies (5)
🧠 Nostr needs:
🔸 Simple, functional, reliable, straightforward, elegant client that doesn't try to do too much nor pack in a huge amount of features. It needs to be straightforward, clean, and essentially just focus on micro-blogging and basic social networking.
🔸 A set of curated relays therein with an intentional focus away from the current extant Nostr zeitgeist/user-base (crypto spam, essentially; crypto fanatics). Focus on normal and organic user content that is more accessible to a wider quantity of users.
☁️ Bluesky has the client/app and onboarding figured out 100%. —Their stuff is totally polished, functional, and a joy to use. But, AT Protocol is de facto not-decentralized and Bluesky's zeitgeist/user-base is hysterical Western politics and general hostility/toxicity towards one another.
🐘 Activity Pub has a wide variety of clients/FEs which are also very polished and enjoyable to use. Primarily, though, Activity Pub has curated, generally, a phenomenal community and user-base. The zeitgeist/user-base on the Fediverse is great and probably it's strongest asset. But, from a protocol standpoint, Activity Pub is probably the weakest between AT Protocol and Nostr.
💡 If there is a way to code an app/client that delivers the onboarding and UI/UX of Bluesky or other Fediverse FEs, with relays and default community curation that incubates a wider community more akin to the Fediverse, all built on Nostr as a protocol, then I think this is a massively winning combination that can deliver greater network effect and traction to Nostr as a whole.
Bluesky is a VC funded platform, so they have the resources to build that elegance.
You can’t compare Bluesky to Nostr (platform vs protocol).
In the nostrverse we don’t have that (funding) and most clients are build by solo-devs. Mostly very smart technical nerds. We are still in the rough technical discovery phase solving complicated stuff. To build simple clients, we have to go through that phase. Thats my view on the current things, we have to be patient (this is not a sprint..)
So what clients did you tried out so far? I think there are some nice ones out there which compete that same UX you are looking for.
In comparing Bluesky to Nostr I'm specifically comparing the client/app/FE, as I said.
Bluesky, more proper, is (in AT Protocol terms) a whole platform: client/app, app view, firehoses, relays, PDSs, etc.. —All the moving parts that makes AT Protocol so incoherent and difficult to truly decentralize with self-hosting and independent providers (the only really viable self-hosting right now are PDSs, but +90% of users will never do this; There exist a couple alternative app-views, but nobody fully hosting out a complete AT Protocol platform as Bluesky is).
But, specifically, I'm referring to Bluesky as the client/app/web FE when I discuss it here. Their client experience and onboarding is beautiful and straightforward. Very palatable for new users.
rough edges mean character, not flaws. nostr's chaos is our cathedral, built pixel by pixel, not with vc concrete. elegance arrives when artists outnumber architects.
