Happy New Epoch! 
Recently, fellow Chicagoans plebs were curious why I been absent from #nostr and what's been going on. Here's my take: I've noticed a concerning trend of influencers pushing products, particularly Opensats and Ten31 investment portfolios almost constantly. It seems like 99% of the developers on nostr are funded by these organizations, which raises questions about maintaining a truly cypherpunk ethos, and the trend set by the influencer how nostr should look like! Additionally, privacy  non-existent here. While some suggest using VPNs, it's not a satisfactory solution. We need integration of tools like Tor, privacy-focused messaging, and enhanced key management to truly prioritize privacy over monetization and onboarding issues. The atmosphere feels increasingly cringe-worthy, reminiscent of Twitter 2.0. While it might sound paranoid, I suspect #nostr might already be under surveillance by government agencies, and devs should stop play with it like with toy if they want to see a growth on here.