I do know the average content consumer doesn’t give a second thought to the reality that they are the commodity on current social platforms. They don’t care and it’s disheartening. BUT there are a lot of very experienced creators that are exhausted by the constant algorithm game. I haven’t convinced anyone to join me yet, as a lot of people simply aren’t willing to overcome the hurdle of the learning curve of a new platform. I think it’s getting ripe though, especially in regard to certain genres of content that just don’t fully work on a highly censored platform. Most homesteading content creators I know who have refused to indulge in algorithm-driven fear mongering have watched their reach dwindle and subsequently the monetization for their work drop by half or more.
I can’t teach or share about butchering, guns, inflation, putting animals down, or anything the mysterious “community guidelines” deem unmarketable without risking losing monetization on 9 years of work on YT. At the very least, when I don’t play by the rules (and often, I’ve not), I go from averaging 100k views a video to spending a few weeks only getting 20k per video. It’s maddening but like any employee, you mostly play by your bosses rules even if you hate them. You do what you have to keep your job and pay your bills. Eventually though, tyrannical bosses drive good workers away.
This is an oversimplified view of course, because there are other factors. I love what I do. I love homesteading and teaching it and I love the people I’ve connected with over the years and currently YT is my avenue to reach them. I would really really love another way though. The appeal of Nostr to me was seeing the potential for true freedom in creation and reaching a community with honest and untainted information and content. I agree, it’s going to take more development and ease of use for the masses to come, but I think the trajectory is very good.
quotingnostr is still mainly used alongside twitter. in the best rare case, as a replacement. and only because people are running away from something about twitter they don't like.
note19al…8rr6
there is nothing that people want to run to nostr for yet. zaps were promising, but bitcoin is still a hurdle (one that primal is doing the best at overcoming), and it's doubtful lightning could scale to a massive adoption moment.
nostr needs a feature or experience that's unique and sets it apart. i *think* that is the ecosystem of microapps over the long term...but it's definitely not in the short term. and that might be ok.
for twitter the initial draw was the simplicity and weirdness of 140 characters (we started with zero network effect, facebook had it all...that's built over time). later it became the conversation which lead to the "public square" (owned by a private corporation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯). and then as it grew, it had a single point of control/failure people could attack.
nostr doesn't have to worry about that last bit. it's an incredible feature. but not one the average person cares about (no matter how much they yell "FREE SPEECH!"...if people actually cared about free speech, bitcoin and nostr would be all they used...they don't).
all this to say, we're not doomed. but what we think is the killer feature isn't right now. who's going to discover the one that is?