https://image.nostr.build/051938fdd843ee250ab4cd87689f613199a47621791a8330586f7887f6de055a.jpg
March 13th 2024 marked exactly 1 year of me using #nostr - notes and other stuff transmitted by relays. I wrote a down a couple of thoughts and observations regarding the anniversary that and the following days and decided I'd make it into a more cohesive and easier-to-read long-form post.
And it is a fiery love! Since we have no algorithms doing a “year in review” or whatever, I’ll try to make one myself :) I didn’t really use social media much at all until May 2022, when I started using Twitter and Instagram (mostly with the idea of promoting my music and photos, but I quickly also started posting stuff regarding my ideas surrounding Bitcoin, philosophy, nature, yoga, etc. My first post/note here was, ironically, or perhaps fittingly, a repost from Twitter/X: https://primal.net/e/note1kh2zgxwmcgkt2wmlh26rlfxwdd309ajlwq039pqukld6ld92d20qtzxexg
The pros
Since joining nostr in March 2023; my main takeaways regarding the UX for the time being are:
- Almost no spam and no ads thus far, which is awesome
- No “being at the mercy of the algorithms,” which is awesome (although Instagram’s algo tends to do a pretty good job at showing me stuff I’m actually interested in)
- Much higher signal/noise ratio than any other platform
- Much less inflammatory and clickbaity stuff than any other platform
- The ability to move your whole network around from app to app is an absolute gamechanger
- I have already been able to use my npub to participate in rap cyphers (#nostrcypher represent) via Stemstr, to upload my music and podcast episodes via Wavlake, to listen to streams via zap.stream, to publish my articles via YakiHonne, etc. It is inspiring (and dizzying) to see all the new ideas and implementations being thrown around and played with
- Zaps are the new, improved version of likes
- Interactions between users seem to be much more organic, fluid and dynamic
I’m including a screenshot with some rudimentary stats. I try not to be phased by my followers/likes/whatever count, because that is ultimately not the purpose of creation. However, the differences between nostr and legacy social media are huge. In my case, I have been getting 14 new followers per month on Instagram, 34 on X and 54 (nearly 55) on nostr! https://image.nostr.build/7a4e5399400dac764abc2be543bc58371105e3a12ee727c164b7a9c2bd61aaf5.jpg What makes this even more amazing is the fact that: 1. Both IG and X have a much larger user base 2.1. I follow a whole lot more accounts on X 2.2. And on IG a large % of my followers are my meatspace acquaintances, friends and relatives 3. Presumably on both IG and X I have many more bot followers than on nostr (I’m not entirely sure if bot followers are even a thing yet on nostr?)
Funnily enough, on YouTube, Spotify and Soundcloud I have less than 200 followers on each, even though Kontext as the pseudonym was created and existed, for the first 7 years (2015 to 2022), exclusively as the anonymous rapper moniker of mine (hence MC Kontext).
I have stated that I am a zap maximalist and a like minimalist, and as such I’m proud to say that for each like, I have sent out almost 6 zaps. The data below is from nostr.band and is different from other sources (e.g. Primal- also happy birthday to them - my current favorite desktop app) says I have received 190 zaps for a total of 25.1k sats and a max zap of 2100 sats from PaulTaylor) https://image.nostr.build/7b22af1774373cee544df5d8742b0fbad70eac1ef0f098b384347c80d9a14ea9.jpg Some of the most legendary people who I have received zaps from include @Jeff Booth, @Gigi ⚡🧡, @TheGuySwann, @PABLOF7z, @GRANTGILLIAM, @ODELL (but no @MartyBent). A total of 152 accounts have zapped me according to nostr.band. In return, I have zapped a total of 256 accounts (if anybody knows another good nostr+zaps stats site for all-time stats and aggregates, please refer it to me).
Now, obviously, I have managed to “make a loss” by using #nostr - I have zapped away 24k sats more than I have received! However, I regret no sats zapped as they all have been for a good reason, #value4value is real and I believe and live by it. Also, perhaps the fact that I have been rather generous with the zapping has helped my nostr account grow at almost twice the pace of my X account and 4 times the pace of my IG account?
Speaking of growing and zapping, I have also started experimenting with the ideas of #zapvertising and throwing different contests and games on nostr via my business account Satoshee. https://image.nostr.build/b729072cb8097410b8085e4e07b5359cdcc0db0ad11f00173a2e44e5aa99eab4.jpg https://image.nostr.build/cf8292d89ae1a361e0ada9296d849f041b46f394afb6cb1809aeb615b3019e3f.jpg https://image.nostr.build/e4ae321e4acc84304fd973ed0a077fa1b48b8f2467125ccfeae819fa49115c73.jpg I will post a larger, more comprehensive post and stats about that whole venture at some point, but on a very rudimentary look, so far, we have spent approx 450k sats on 276 followers + approx 11 (or 4%) of them also converted into email list subscribers. Which comes down to approx 1.6k sats / follower or 41k sats per email. Now keep in mind - all that is just by posting zapvertising + a couple of memes, we have not published any other information about the enterprise. That being said, I do believe we have gotten some lovely exposure through these efforts (one of Satoshee posts was #3 on Primal 24h Trending at one point): https://image.nostr.build/7f5ab4e203a1cb2ccb8fcbc1fecdc0efc68aa961e5d0b10ea72db45d14e86d3e.jpg Here's a link to the note that made it to Trending. Hopefully once we fully launch the website and products, our gang of #nostriches will be there to test drive the site + become the first customers and/or recommend it to their friends. My thesis is that if we start off by literally paying our prospective customers, then they are more likely to trust and engage with our products as soon as we come to the market. All that will be either proven or disproven by time, of course.
OH, the cons?
I guess more ways to see and filter stats and data in general would be nice to see in the #nostr ecosystem. Why not also have some platforms that utilize algos, and/or where we can choose to opt in and out of them. The DM side of nostr apps seems also lacking for now. Perhaps these could be the downsides I see for now; or areas in which we could move in.
Of course, the onboarding process is probably also a little bit complicated for the nocoiner newbie, who may not even be familiar with the concept of public/private key pairs, but truthfully I haven't tried going through that process myself in a while so can't really comment on the progress. I assume it's being made (and from what I hear and see here and there, that seems to be the case).
Conclusion
To wrap it all up: super excited to see freedom tech (both #Bitcoin and #nostr) just being so unbelievably more effective and inspiring than the old fiat systems and I can only imagine how much abundance and prosperity on all levels of the human experience; physical, intellectual and spiritual can and will be built upon all this.
Onward. Kontext
Originally written and posted Block Height 834,554
Amended, fixed and posted to YakiHonne Block Height 835,196