Oddbean new post about | logout
 Art, music, homesteading, permies, feet pics. 
 Sure, but good luck discovering it. I'm not saying that one can't painstakingly sift through the shit to find something else to follow. But the onboarding experience for me was driven by and toward a handful of large Bitcoin and Nostr accounts that now dominate my feed and the people I interact. Discovery has been a tedious experience and one that I have largely given up on. Maybe I am the problem here, but expecting the average person to stick around is goofy in my opinion.

For example, this is what I get for the first three pages when searching for music as a keyword.

https://image.nostr.build/de8f87511368d65da9ac93ce7cafae22124788be94ad361779b78d915786eb20.jpg

https://image.nostr.build/c8bb7983c87fce818280e40c3989651ee50886bde5f86bfecd996eba95e055ec.jpg

https://image.nostr.build/9104c9137acf16b7f2111a6657457afe88608f2cd06dc8b05860207b71bb2a8c.jpg

Development is happening at an incredible speed, but I don't buy that excluding Bitcoin and Nostr content will result in a sufficient feed for the average person. Even the artists and musicians I have discovered came from my Bitcoin feed. They're Bitcoiners who also do art and music.

None of this is a bad thing at this stage, but I don't think the UX or userbase exists to attract and retain people who absolutely do not want to see anything related to Bitcoin or Nostr specifically. It's all in beta, which is why I haven't recommended Nostr to a single normie in real life. Even my Bitcoiner (lite) friends aren't interested.

I think it will require some branded application that doesn't advertise ties to any Nostr protocol or Bitcoin stuff and offer people a very easy way to manage keys. We aren't there and people leaving quickly is exactly what I expect. I tend to think we shouldn't taint people's view of Nostr this early on by recommending it to people who aren't at least somewhat interested in Bitcoin and relevant tech.

I see myself as a beta tester here and nothing more. 
 And the noob sees this on the most popular client for one of the two major mobile platforms.

Stuff like this isn't going to keep average users around.

It's going to be okay with people like us, who are already here.
 https://image.nostr.build/a73c2edf661fb243f5a48b229fefc10dac4a346b60d0b07898696c9f1ab2dbe3.jpg