Oddbean

Influencoors are very successful on centralized platforms because they’re getting paid by brands and stuff, and the platforms love that shit so they play along and boost engagement since it’s centralized and manipulable, and all those participants get rich and happy off the sad poor peasants Brands can do that here too… kinda. Primal’s an interesting example because they sort of are their own platform (see the whole de-platforming saga with @semisol @𝓞𝓷𝔂𝔁.𝓥𝓲𝔁𝓮𝓷 and @ralf and whoever else). But it’s a lot more of a challenge bc we don’t have to use primal. It still comes up into other clients of course but it’s just never gonna be as strong i don’t think Of course i hope someday enough people use nostr that general content creators can be on nostr only. But whether that will happen i have no idea What stands out to me here and now though, is that people do what i can only describe as “zap shaming” making the average user feel guilty for the amount they zap, and i think that’s counter-productive if anything. Some people are wholecoiners, some are whales, some have good jobs, some don’t even have a real utxo yet. It varies a lot. There is no amount that anyone should expect anyone else to zap. Subjectivity like this is just an unavoidable and generally unknowable component of value for value. So i don’t like zap shaming, i don’t think it helps anyone. Maybe i’m just an annoying bastard bc most of my zaps are only 7 sats and private. But i’m no whale and when something really impacts me i zap moar. I don’t see the issue here. Nostr’s adoption and success depend on other stuff a lot more imo

Influencoors vs. Creators/Artists— I don’t equate these categories. Fuck the influencoors. But civilized society would vanish without the artists/writers/musicians/etc that sustain and advance culture. Many artists make a living off their work, and often from creating multiple revenue streams off it. Nostr could potentially be a place where artists/writers/creators can generate a revenue stream directly from their audience, free of influence from advertisers and other sources of censorship. Zap shaming— No one should be shamed for what or how much they choose to zap, but that doesn’t mean we can’t assess the economic health of the nostr network. The current levels of zapping and the average zap amounts are not incentivizing much in the way of anything beyond being used as a fun toy. People will spend their time where they feel that time is valued. It could be that simply socializing and having fun with a few people is all someone is looking for. But those people have to be subsidized by users generating and spending real economic value, and unless nostr is a place where real economic value is exchanged, then how long will it last? It won’t happen today, so I’m not trying to say it’s now or never. But I think it’s fair to say that right now there isn’t obvious incentive for artists/creators to devote a large amount of time and resources to creating content here.

Oof good points. Not sure why i conflated influencoors with content creators. And yeah, right now an artist would be making a good decision by posting progress pics or final products etc. and probably get zaps. But it’s just a bonus. Hopefully they have a gallery or website or something where they actually sell their work.

Was just thinking about posting like this for creatr.nostr.wine. Not a professional musician, so quality varies from a full track or video playthrough to literally me last night recording with my phone riffing around. Will see how that comes around

I hate it that social media culture has conflated the term creator and “influencer.” One of the reasons I love nostr and v4v is because it just doesn’t seem to foster that “influencer” culture the way ad-driven social media does. Creators are free to create here, and not constantly trying to beat the algo or trying to achieve some particular level of reach/followers just so they can begin monetizing. And even then, on the other networks it would be from ad revenue which means you’re constantly trying to create in such a way that you won’t get deplatformed or deboosted. Nostr and v4v simplify it all and make it easier to be authentic. But at some point bills have to be paid, and probably sooner than the zap levels become viable enough to spend a lot of time creating here.