Hello Nostrich's!

Is that even how you say it? I hope so.

My name's Tom Kuegler, and I write online. Most notably I write on Medium, where I have over 60,000 followers.

My friends Carmen and Duncan introduced me to Nostr a few days ago, and I've been fascinated with this place ever since.

I want this experiment to succeed. Badly.

If we ever needed a new place to convene online as bloggers, it's now.

Medium.com, a really great blogging site for much of the last 7 years, is nosediving into the ground.

Substack is a cool alternative, but I'm still not super convinced it's going to generate meaningful results for me. And with social media platforms that censor people, have crappy algorithms, and take more and more control from their users, we need a place like Nostr to help shake up the status quo.

I typically write about life lessons, travel tales, and writing advice, but before I start publishing that stuff I want to take a second to talk about Nostr and the 1 thing I believe it must do to succeed.

Let's get to it.

It Needs A Community Outside The Traditional Bitcoin/Crypto Space

A few years ago I dove into a platform called Bitclout. It was a decentralized platform from what I can remember - much like Nostr's various applications. There were a few key differences of course, but more or less their concepts were the same.

A few weeks into my time there, Bitclout launched NFT compatibility for its users. Soon after, my feed got flooded with JPEG's to the point where I simply couldn't find content from any of my writer friends anymore. I stopped spending time there soon after.

I was literally force fed content about crypto and bitcoin all day long and I couldn't take it anymore. And that's coming from someone who loves Bitcoin!

In my opinion, Nostr desperately needs to grow outside the traditional crypto space in terms of its user base and attract writers of all different backgrounds.

That's going to be tough for a variety of reasons, but it needs to be done nonetheless.

So, what should you do if you're a Nostr user who only writes about crypto, Nostr, and the future of this space? Nothing! Keep doing what you're doing. We need you as well.

I guess the only thing I'd ask, kindly, is to consider lending your support to writers who come here and write about other topics. That's so important.

I've taught thousands of writers about how to present themselves better online, and the one thing they need the most is support. Without support they won't have any hope their words actually mean anything and they'll quit soon after.

Support is the spark that lights the fire of hope for the writing community - hope that their writing will benefit them either financially or spiritually.

For Nostr to succeed, and attract a wide user base of people who don't necessarily care too much about crypto, it needs to make space for content that's not about Nostr, crypto, or blockchain technology.

We need normal people to come here.

A big part of making that happen comes down to welcoming and supporting them when they open that door.

I'll try to do my part as well.

In my opinion, that's one big thing Nostr must do.