You are designing an incentive system. Presumably your incentive system is designed to grow nostr, which is great.

You are however at the same step in the process where companies spend billions trying to get people hooked using psychological tricks and black magic fuckery.

Distracting people is a great way to get them hooked and grow the user base. This is not however always in the best interest of the user.

What you're doing is wonderful and worth digging into, this is not a criticism. You're asking questions about what makes this place compelling, why do some stick around and others do not?

There is an existing set users on nostr who have choosen to stick around without an onboarding system designed to make it stickier. Who are they and why is that?

I'm still not entirely certain what this place is. I suspect I like it because it's smaller - so perhaps I am the wrong person to be asking about what we should do to make it bigger. 

 So many good points…

First:
nostr is small. It will either stay small or it will grow. I imagine the latter is the zeitgeist, so the question is … How to keep bots and bad actors at bay in a (scaled-up) decentralized “no sherif in town”  social network? Webs of Trust is the “popular” answer, but the challenge remains … how to weave new accounts directly into webs of trust, and avoid the “din of spam and propaganda” that is sure to be the dominant background noise of Nostr? 

“Social onboarding” is the answer I propose. 

Because WE are the dedicated few who are equipped to succeed in such a task, YOU are actually the ONLY and the BEST person to ask.  

 Second:

I’m attempting to answer two questions in this algo flow: 

1) how to quantify “social onboarding” so we can measure its success (in terms of higher retention rates?)

2) how to discover the “nostr advocates” who are doing all this good work?

Given the value statement for “social onboarding” stated above … these are still valid questions to ask, regardless of how the “incentives and rewards” play out.  

 "I'm seeking an investor with a mission to invest in dreams and projects to change the world for a better future. I plan to initially invest $5 million in my well-being to improve my quality of life and focus on the project. Additionally, an additional $3 million will be invested, totaling an initial investment of $8 million. Of these, $3 million will be dedicated entirely to the project for the development of a cheap and accessible framework, including the development of a mechanical skeleton to help people walk, mechanical robots, and other utilities. I guarantee to deliver the prototype within 2 years, with additional support from the investor."