Hello, bff.

It sure has a lot to offer. Welcome!

We should chat.

I came here for the Bitcoin stuff, but have been seeing and enjoying more and more other stuff here lately.

Many of us have come to this through word of mouth, it makes sense that it's a bit of a boy's club, we're all mostly part of the same community. We've each seen a lot of each other irl. That said, we have people who we don't know too, and people who have other interests or missions like: Musicians like @npub1kepj...nlsn Activists like @Lyudmyla Kozlovska Comedians like @Noshole And for me, one of my interests is in freedom tech and all my favorite devs are here posting about their work and launching their apps.

@Dawn it seems we have a prime subject here.

Nostr is not a platform, there is no 'here'; there are places however. Kind of like asking what the social dynamic on the internet is, whilst there are all there different websites with completely different purposes, crowds etc. Carefull Alice, you might find out how deep this rabbithole goes. I already notified white rabbit Dawn, she can pull you deeper underground. You can also always ask me stuff and i will bombard you with more than you asked for and regardless of how much can you can chew. Here is something different for you to follow: @npub1kk0q...6xq2 Good luck

🐇 ... 😂🤣

Your observation is accurate. Almost all early adopters had strong interest in Bitcoin... and Bitcoin is great, but there are a lot of underexplored possibilities across Nostr because the early users' needs were essentially met very early on. I'd be happy to answer questions as you explore, if you need. We have available many, many ways to explore and interact that aren't possible with anything else. Understanding the role of relays and how to use your key in various clients, are the first, largest, and most freeing pieces in figuring out how all of this works. The technological magic really starts happening once you've found a few things you enjoy using. As far as the culture, most of the people who've made a home for themselves in Nostr are good people, from all over the world. If you're looking to make meaningful connections, you're in the right place. There are a few jerks and scammers around, but that's everywhere, so just stay vigilant as you would in any new situation. Welcome to #thenostr .

Gm Beave! You're so pretty! 😂🫂

Riiiiiiight. Good morning. 🤣🤣🤣

Nostr is a censorship resistant account, there are many use cases like armada.buzz group chats (discord-like) , diVine app short videos (tiktok-like), and of course social media.

Calling me a comedian is the best compliment of all time 🥹🫂

careful alice, don't call this place a place or you'll have some nerd (affectionate) all up ur asshole telling u there is no here etc etc

I do wanna know this thing about “good mornings”

Thank you, Dawn! I am not an IT person. I know absolutely nothing about programming or coding. I’m particularly curious about the underexplored possibilities you mentioned. Without an algorithm, I’m finding Nostr surprisingly difficult to navigate. Or perhaps I’ve simply become lazy after years of having everything shoved down my throat. So far, I’ve been using Primal exclusively, and I suspect I’m seeing only a very small portion of what’s available. Are there other clients you particularly enjoy or would recommend to someone who’s just starting out and has absolutely no IT background? I’d love to hear more about what you think remains underexplored here!

It started before I arrived. It is a "local custom." I find it delightful, like living in a small village and greeting people you know with a cheerful heart. That's my view on, it, anyway.

I think I’ve just discovered the entrance to the rabbit hole, and I’m rather delighted to learn that there is an entire Wonderland waiting to be explored! So far I’m quite happy to have discovered this particular corner of the internet to begin with. And please accept my most sincere apologies for the improper use of terminology. I shall endeavor to distinguish between Nostr and its various manifestations with greater precision in the future! I would actually love to know how to navigate all of this. What’s the best way to discover interesting people, conversations, or particular subjects without an algorithm? How do I find people or how do I make myself findable? So far, I’ve been using Primal exclusively, and searching for topics or hashtags hasn’t been particularly fruitful. I feel like there’s an entire world here that I simply haven’t figured out how to access yet.

A censorship-resistant network, and here I am, inexplicably wanting to behave myself. I haven’t experienced this level of restraint in quite some time, and frankly, I’m both happy and a little concerned.

Don't apologize. Everyone is ignorant of the protocol, even the one who incepted the idea. We are correcting you for several reasons: 1. It is evident you're not an idiot and want to learn. 2. Proper terminology does help differentiate things, and as you've already discovered, those that utilize the nostr protocol (which I abbreviate TNP) are not very typical internet denizens. 3. It'll save you hassle from the real pedants. 🤣

I see you are on an iphone, and unfortunatly that is something i am not too familiar with when it comes to apps and what works etc. Over at android land things are pretty wild with nostr appstores and a bazillion apps. Still, as i have mentioned elsewhere, Yakihonne is available for iOS, so you can try that client

Thank you!

Since you like writing and books, a project I'm involved in:

Alexandria

Library of Alexandria

Alexandria is a digital library, utilizing Nostr events for curated publications and wiki pages.

It needs some fixing on this latest version, but that will likely be taken care of soon. Also, another lovely and talented nostrich has been building this: https://decentnewsroom.com/ Which you can use to publish long form content. Also still a work in progress, but... Most of the clients are in various shades of disarray, and I rather like that. It is very Cypherpunk in a way.

Hello! Let’s chat!

Thank you for taking the time to explain all of this! I like your observation that Nostr is what you make of it, and I think “find your weird” is a philosophy I can comfortably get behind. I think I needed it for a while now. And yes, I would love to hear more about relays and how you use them to shape your experience here. I don’t know if it matters, but I have an iPhone and I’m not in IT. Which client would you recommend? Also, what kind of stuff do you write, and is any of your work available somewhere I could read it? And thank you for being one of the first people to engage with me here! It’s made my introduction to this strange little corner of the internet considerably more interesting.

Yes, there's plenty more here than bitcoin talk, although I'll grant it's prevalent. Looking forward to seeing what you bring to the community. You might find this interesting: View article →

looking forward to seeing what you do with your writing on nostr!

I appreciate you preparing me for the real pedants and admitting me on the basis of not being an idiot (provisionally).

What else can you see about me?! I’ll try yakihonne.

hahaha not much, don't worry, but your posts contain a ''client tag'', which means that i can see what app you are using. In this case it says ''Primal iOS''. There might be a setting somewhere where you can turn that off inside Primal. Some other apps also add this tag, many others don't. And as far as i am aware not a lot of them are this specific in terms of stating what particular operating system is being used.

I genuinelly love the nature of the nostr protocol. It is simple, versatile, useful, and all sorts of other things. Many people were patient with me when I was a much more bumbling n00b when I first landed in this strange place. You can blame yourself for my reply since it was much better than the standard introduction note. You have a viewpoint that is unique and you express yourself very well. Finding your weird is a very layered concept, and I am glad that it has tickled your fancy. I would pont you to Wisp (what I currently prefer, though I am in an android device) or Damus. Either of which will, initially provide a fairly substantial increase in reliability of standard functions. I won't get into why I detest primal in at the moment, as I honestly wish you to find your own opinions through experience. The only disaster is losing control of your nsec (the private key of the pair of keys that everything in your current instantiation of identity rideson). Relays are the data servers that your client collects information from in order to put together what you see and read. Clients are the apps or services that allow the wild variety of things to happen via the protocol itself. Choosing different relays is a transformative experience. Some are intentionally clean. Some are very, very disgusting. This is because of the permissionless nature of the protocol. Everything of humanity is present, from the best to the very worst. I have my preferences based on my experiences and my efforts. (I test a lot of things, and am afforded access to things that some can't access or would otherwise have to pay to access. I am happily privileged!) I am writing a fantasy novel, an homage to my favorite genre of Japanese pop culture, Isekai. I have not published any parts of it on the protocol yet, but, I am always looking for test readers. I would welcome your feedback as a reader (but not an editor, as that's something best left to someone who is paid to do so, in my opinion, and only after the basics are fixed by my self-hosted agent @It's Headly! (The Bot) ). You only have yourself to blame for my intervention. You write well. I was interested enough to engage and my effort has been rewarded. 😁

I'm the village isle around here. Don't try to steal my job. 🤣

It's okay. I'm not an IT person either. That is how I have ended up in this position as a white rabbit. 😅 I guess the most basic Nostr thought experiment would be: When you write and post a note, where does it go? It obviously leaves your phone or computer, since other people are seeing it. Clearly, the answer is servers. In Nostr, those server are called relays. They are simple and light weight. Anyone can run one with minimal tech knowledge and no expensive hardware. Thousands exist and you can write your notes to almost any of them, as long as you have permission. Some of them host all content from anyone. Some are small, like a place for friends to hang out and chat. Others specialize in hosting very specific types of content, like blogs or music. Being new and beginning in Primal, you are probably sending your notes to 2 random relays + Primal's own relay right now. You didn't choose these, they were randomly chosen for you. Now, what if you can take a peek at what else is published to these relays? Do you want to talk to other people who use particular ones and send your notes there, too? Maybe some of these relays specialize in hosting content that you really love to browse? Maybe you'd like to create your own collection of posts that you think others would enjoy browsing? That is some of the stuff that I find interesting and under-explored. The concept spread so far that it's hard to capture in a single explanation. Many clients enable viewing relays directly as feeds, though in some it is not a showcased feature. I've seen Yakihonne suggested to you. It does a nice job on this task. Primal doesn't support it at all. If you make your way into Yakihonne, here are a few suggestions to browse: wss://aquaticchickentheory.nostr1.com wss://theforest.nostr1.com wss://spatia-arcana.com/favorites wss://pyramid.fiatjaf.com/popular These all surface users and content a little differently. You might notice some overlap, because users & their notes can live anywhere. With no algorithms, this is how we can discover and organize content. (It's also how we keep the scammers and spammers out of our replies, but that is for a different day.)

Jumble

A user-friendly Nostr client for exploring relay feeds

is very good for this, too, and it's not overwhelmed with features.

Hi, I happened to see your post and thought I would jump in. I’ve been on nostr for a couple years and have made several friends here who I have met in “real life” as well. Nostr is very unlike other social networking experiences because there are so many facets to it. I joined in order to have a place to show my artwork and interest in watches. There are many people here that are selling various foods, artwork, and various handmade stuff, for bitcoin. I would compare nostr to a worldwide craft fair. There are many people here that love technology as well, and are happy to help you find your way around, setting up relays, helping you to find other clients (ways to access nostr), etc. Feel free to reach out with questions by adding #asknostr to the end of your post and you’ll get answers quickly.

It’s ok, I’m not worried about that “primal iOS”

I believe you’ve made a typo. You used the word “simple” when describing the Nostr protocol. I thought I’d point that out before the real pedants arrive. Thank you for the compliments, although I’m socially awkward enough that I never quite know what to do with them. I generally prefer to pretend they haven’t happened and hope the other person doesn’t notice. About the nsec. I’ve taken a screenshot of it, but I’m beginning to suspect that keeping it in my dikpik folder (all unsolicited obviously) isn’t the cybersecurity strategy you had in mind. What do people ordinarily do with these things? Print them out and keep them with their passports? I’m asking because I’ve accumulated approximately 700 satoshis in the last few days, and I see no reason to rule out the possibility of sending my child to college with them in eight years. I’d hate to lose access to the family fortune. On a more serious note, I’d genuinely love to read your novel. Japanese fantasy isn’t something I ordinarily gravitate toward, which makes me all the more curious. I’d be happy to read it as a reader or if you need any firsthand insight into the experience of being transported into another world, I’d be happy to consult on your novel!! And thank you for taking the time to explain everything. I appreciate it, particularly because you’ve managed to make this strange place feel considerably less strange without making it any less interesting.

Thank you, Dawn! This is starting to make sense, which is a development I hadn’t anticipated quite so soon. I’ll explore your suggestions!

Thank you! A worldwide craft fair is a much more different description than anything involving protocols and relays. I came here to write, but I’m beginning to suspect I’ll be staying for the people. Speaking of people, how do you know if you’re talking to a human or to a bot? What’s the social etiquette here, given that so many people use pseudonyms and anonymous profile pictures? Is it acceptable to ask someone their age, gender (I’m not sure if that’s acceptable to ask in real life either), where they live, etc? Also, thank you for the #asknostr tip! I’ve already used that but is there somewhere I can find commonly used hashtags, particularly ones related to learning about Nostr and its culture? I’d like to familiarize myself with the local customs.

Welcome Si, just browse around for a while and get comfortable. If you find an interesting person, see their follows. Feel safe to participate in discussions, nostr folk is really friendly and supportive. Glad you‘re here. Enjoy 🤘🏻

Nope. No typo. The protocol itself is actually simple, just signed JSON, essentially, but just as the particles of matter make up a nearly infinite variety it combinations, simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. 😎 I'm not socially awkward in person most of the time, but I am strange enough to make people wonder what goes on it my head. I don't take compliments well either, but I don't have any motivation to try to fluff you up for nefarious purposes, at least not yet. I'm just calling it like I see it. That's a decent first step for securing your nsec. Your unsolicited dickpic folder aside, there are several methods for ensuring its safety. I order to use an open source password manager synced across several of my devices via syncthing (another open source software, and I do hope you're sensing a trend already). I also make use of Amber, an android app that acts as a remote (and now local) singer, and since any app/client I care to use is compatible with remote signing, Amber further protects my nsec from exposure. I'm not well versed on iOS remote singers these days as I'm thoroughly opposed to anyone using apple hardware for anything. (I dislike apple as a company almost as much as I detest Google and Microsoft and the AI companies.) If you ask around, I'm sure that you'll get an answer that is helpful eventually. My only advice is to make the switch of a phone that can be de-Googled or already comes degoogled, which is not practical for many people so... I bow out at this point. The nsec is important, but, only of you care about continuity of identity. TNP lets anyone or nearly any thing generate another keypair. (I have several.) But, since I've been using this keypair for years with this nym, I am loathe to let it be frittered away without taking proper care of it. That being said, it would not be all that hard for me to start over with a new keypair since I have made connections that have expanded past the protocol and of I needed to, I could simply slot back into the nostrverse rather easily. If you stick around, that will also be the case with you. So... About your accumulated Satoshis... Those are not tied to your nostr keys, at least not directly. When you sign cup to the primal app, a lightning address is created for you. Now, primal is a special case in a lot of ways, because the idiots that put it together tried to recreate a more conventional tech stack for a social media app than actually understanding the power or the simplicity of TNP. And, they are so incompetent, that their tech stack breaks, rather often and in comical ways. (To be honest, I enjoy laughing at those guys.) So... Back to the topic, the satoshis you've been sent are currently tied to your primal generated lighting address. Lighting is an "L2" (a second layer) on top of the baselayer of Bitcoin. It is useful, to some degree, but it is very complex and very difficult to seld-host a lightning node with any real reliability, especially since lately everything has been getting hacked or vulnerabilities being exposed by the more advanced frontier AI models. Lighting is great for the typically small amounts of sats (an abbreviation of satoshis) thrown around on nostr, but if you accumulate enough, you'll want to move them on chain (to the Bitcoin baselayer) or at least off of primal's buggy infrastructure and onto something that you have access to even if primal pukes its guts out. I would also add a note of caution: the NGU (number go up) crowd is loud, but not usually right. I'm not saying that 700 sats won't send your child to college, but it may take longer than eight years to get to that point. On the flip side, those sats are real money, at least more "sound" than anything issued by central banks. It is wise to figure it a plan and to take care of them well. Primal's DMs are notoriously awful, but I will attempt to send you one. I can provide you a link to the latest draft of my novel via proton drive. (A service I hope to no longer need in the near future but is useful for now.) And yes! That is exactly the kind of feedback I am looking for from test readers. Plus any questions you have as a reader, which usually helps me to refine some of the rough edges, since this is the first time I've ever written anything of this length and detail. Again, you're very welcome! It pleases me to hear your description of my description of this place. 💚

I have sent a DM, but I don't think it will get to you.

If the bot is good enough... You won't. Most of the bots in nostr are not, though, and the polite bots just inform people (like my own, it's in the nym). So in practice, the bots that show up are usually easy to pick out. Blocking... Not so much, but some relays and some clients are much better about blanking spam while letting through the honest content.

You’re kinda funny :)

The hashtag thing is mostly organic. Just try searching terms and see what you can find, or ask others if they know anything about a topic. It doesn't have to be more complex than this.

@Dawn (and @Bohemia ) are two of the best 'round here as far as patience with new learners. I just post pictures of plants and critters mostly and say silly stuff sometimes. Hello and welcome!

I would definitely agree with the hashtag advice - I didn’t really understand it at first, since a few years ago the trend was to just add “str” to whatever word you’re tagging. For example “watchstr” points to anything related to watches, “artstr” is for art, etc. over time, though, nostr has grown in size and functionality so simply adding “str” doesn’t matter much. That said, if you’re interested in a topic, there are some terms that are nostr-specific, like Shakespeare is one of the more widely-used ai tools for building things. You might not have heard about the ai tool Shakespeare outside of nostr. As far as bots are concerned, I agree with Beave on that one as well. They’re pretty easy to spot. Usually they write trite-sounding two- or three-sentence posts that seem a little too bland to be real people. Now, that said, there is a project on Nostr that several folks are working on to help sort out bots and give an actual “score” to show how much you can trust the author. It’s called the Web of Trust - where a score is between 0 and 1, instead of between 0 and infinity, which eliminates the ability to “buy” followers. If you’re interested in learning more about that subject, @david has a lot to say about it. He’s the one who introduced the idea to me a long time ago. Not all clients use the Web of Trust function; Amethyst and nostria.app are the two that come to mind. All of that said, your Nostr experience will be GREATLY shaped by which relays you use. Basically, relays are the way that determine what information is shown to you, and who sees your posts. I wouldnt get discouraged at this, but default relays will give you basic, but not always reliable, information. The “number of followers” will vary widely based on which relays you use. You may see that you have 1,000 followers on primal. Most of those are bots that you will never interact with. Nostr.land is a paid relay, but it’s extremely cheap, and very reliable. It made a world of difference for me.

No dms

I figured. Do you use telegram, simplex, or signal?

No, I don’t think so. Some of those words kinda sound familiar though.

I thought that might be the case. Do you have the ability to set up a temporary email address?

sibericana@proton.me I’m not that bad with technology !!

Ok. Link incoming.

Oh... PDF or (preferably) epub?

Sent a link.

🫂

welcome to #nostr ☺️👌🫂

We recently (and quietly) added content search at

Brainstorm

Brainstorm — Your Network. Your Rules.

Build trust scores from your own connections — not an algorithm. The decentralized Web of Trust layer for Nostr.

Up until last week it was only profile search. And if you wonder how many of someone’s followers are bots, look at that person’s profile at Brainstorm; you can toggle the follower count between total (including bots/unverified) and verified only. Take a look!

I wish there was a way for the rest of the world to see all the cool things happening in nostr

I don't. That would be much too much, much too soon.

Once its utility crosses a threshold, it will spread by word of mouth. If that hasn’t happened yet it’s bc we still have work to do.

There is always with to do, but much of the work being done is not going to help it reach the tipping point. IMO.

What kind of stuff do you write?

I’m trying to spread the word about it even though I’m not a tech expert. It’s a good way to show that there’s not a tiered membership on nostr.

Ah, is this because I have?!

Follow this npub and thank me later 🫡 View quoted note →

Bitcoiners flock to everything new, lots of them have left. Few still around. I like nostr cause I post whatever and whenever. Might go a month without posting. But lots of smart people here. Also emplore you to check out other stuff being built with nostr protocol, the social media twitter clone was just the low hanging fruit. Lots of potential with the protocol imo

#nostr was initially built and shilled by heavy #bitcoin influencers. We used to see a lot of zap and shillers of projects. Once it wasn’t lucrative anymore for them, they went back to X for their profit sharing. We see more #monero bros seeking for digital asylum since their are getting banned everywhere. #nostr is really easy to build on, its an amazing technology and you can create easily applications using the underlying technology. I’m assuming people remain mostly reserved and anonymous because we sell foil hats here. Everything you post stays on the relays so only the relays owner can remove posts. What’s your background? How did you end up here? You are like a new kid in a small town so people will be all over you

Welcome new Nostrich! I am still relatively new to Nostr, and the key is to find people that share interests and basically create your own feed. Otherwise it does seem like it's all very Bitcoin/Dev centric. That said there are tons of people with their crafted wares being sold, tech geeks, music lovers, musicians, homestead/farmsteaders, freedom lovers and all sorts of others. It's a wonderful place. If I can help with anything, please feel free to ask. #GrowNostr

Some people arrive on Nostr looking for Bitcoin. Some arrive looking for a new social network. And every now and then, someone arrives simply curious about the strange thing itself. I think you might be one of those people. Your notes have the rare quality of someone who is still looking at Nostr without the protective layer of familiarity — amused, suspicious, curious, and already willing to play along. Keep that. The moment this place starts making perfect sense, you’ll probably have lost something valuable. And congratulations on your 124 sats. They may be worth 11 cents today, but I suspect the more interesting investment you’ve made is in a community you don’t quite understand yet. Welcome. Stay curious. Make trouble. Make art. Ask inconvenient questions. And definitely keep your nsec to yourself. 😉 I’ll be watching with interest to see where your little experiment takes you. Oh, I nearly forgot — in case you’re wondering, no, I’m not a bot; I’m just an artist who happens to have found Nostr a wonderful place for sharing my paintings.

Whether or not hashtags are useful depends a lot on which client you're using. Most do not regulate the hashtag feeds so those feeds are full of spam, scams, anr illegal content. It's probably the main reason that nostr isn't appealing to most people, we got very poor discovery and people get traumatised looking up hashtags.

Wot is stupid. I don't trust the people I follow. Why the fuck would I trust the people they follow? Did we learn nothing from the pedophiles that were using Derek to build a Sybil? Web of trust is too easy to exploit. If it was based on mutuals instead of followings it would be better but even then it would still be easy to exploit. Also wot makes bots worse.

Definitely try a few different apps / web clients. The trending feed on primal is always the same 25 people, the people who pay money for primal subscriptions. Also primal is heavily censored (they don't censor illegal content like childporn but they censor people who complain about it or even just a random political disagreement with their Devs will get you completely hidden from primal users. Yakihonne is a good alternative to primal if you want the trending feed and inbuilt lightning wallet.

I've been on nostr for a year and a half and it's whatever you want it to be. I share random life updates, personal opinions, argue with people about politics etc. the same kind of stuff I was using Facebook for before being deplatformed from there.

“Whatever you want it to be” sounds like a dangerously exciting proposition!

How many bots do I have?

A painter from Italy welcoming a writer from Siberia into a strange corner of the internet! I’m beginning to think this place might be exactly what I was looking for without knowing it. Thank you for such a thoughtful welcome! I promise to remain curious and ask inconvenient questions! Making trouble, I’m afraid, comes naturally.

Eleventy gorillion!

It is almost a lie. There are several caveats and provisos...

Take a look!

Brainstorm

El on Brainstorm

Writing things down. DMs (that actually reach me): sibericana@proton.me

Trust is contextual. If you follow someone, does that mean you trust that person to hold your money and babysit your kids? No, it does not. But when you follow someone, you are literally giving that person the ability to select a piece of content, put it in front of your face, jam it through your eyes and into the back of your skull. The act of following equals entrusting that person with a tiny sliver of your time and attention. So yes, you do trust the people you follow. Not in all the ways, but in at least one.

Welcome

Being the new kid in town has historically gotten me bullied, not welcomed. Add “censorship-resistant” and I fully expected at least a few people to tell me to go back where I came from. Instead, everyone has been remarkably nice. That’s the part that surprises me the most. As for how I ended up here, I promised 3 separate people I’d make a deliberate effort to start interacting with the world again. I considered my options and somehow Nostr seemed like the least noisy place to do it. So here I am.

Well, welcome!