Oddbean

Primal’s iOS and Android app are insane. They are feel better than Twitter, damus feels janky in comparison. If it worked on my account and without caching servers it would probably be my daily driver.

I love that Damus was built by the people, for the people, with little to no funding to begin with, was open source from the start, and is the first iOS client that started a lot of this. Damus will get better over time. Primal is fantastic but started closed source and centralized before becoming open and more decentralized, had funding, and I don’t think it has as many community developer contributions. Nothing wrong with any of that, but both clients were born out of different environments.

I respectfully disagree. I didn’t test Android. But iOS: 1) Scrolling feels wrong. I wish I know what it is, it just feels like there is friction. 2) Feed doesn’t update automatically, you need to refresh or tap the new notes button. 3) you can switch between notes and notes and replies. You have to keep going to the top filter, which is far. 4) Padding between notes is very tight. 5) Search page is unfinished. 6) Video player is not good. What I am trying to say. You are judging Damus too harshly. The only thing Primal is better at is the wallet. Which admittedly is fucking amazing.

The things that annoyed me the most: 1. My notifications still don’t load 2. Cant see who zapped or liked posts 3. No full bleed images What I liked the most that Damus isn’t as good at yet: 1. Smooth scrolling 2. Video player with proper seeking 3. Fast load times Most of these are fixed in damus android and ios soon… just need to catch up with overall ux.

Damus is really good. Yes there are small things here and there. But trust us. Look at the comments on your OP. Literally everyone says they go Damus first. There is a reason for that. You spent a lot of time on backend stuff. Then switched to other platforms. That’s a lot of work for a small team. I understand that Apple forced this situation. But maybe iOS17.4 side loading will open Europe for Damus. I am certain a nostr App Store will be built in less than a week. 🤙🤙 Maybe a suggestion: Post the issues list you think need fixing, let us vote on them, you will get a priority list. Smash them one by one. Will help you stop thinking about them.

Primal does feel super smooth but there are some things I don’t like either, like caching servers, wallet that needs PII, etc. Damus was the first iOS client I used. Trust me, the experience has improved leaps and bounds from what it used to be. Not flawless, but adequate MVP. Great job on that @jb55

The problem is it's unlikely Primal will ever be able to transition away from their caching servers as they are central to how Primal is built Nymble's architecture will be able deliver better performance in the short term leveraging BitDNS (ie. Namecoin) as the discovery mechanism for the relays. Initially the settings point to servers hosted by Nymble [Nymble relays will be smart] but at any moment people will be able to redirect traffic to their own servers with zero loss to UX The Nymble offering will be unique in another MORE important way: people will be able to keep a complete and permanent record of all their notes. Their entire history of contributions to the Nostr ecosystem (whatever the user wants to show) will be on full display at a decentralized webpage found at [yourNAME].bit ** .bit has been around almost as long as Bitcoin and is secured by Bitcoin hash via mergemining. Refer to BitDNS or Namecoin for more information. From here we're a stone's throw away from being able to access whatever information we need without tradeoffs to security or UX AND have the ability to better lure influencers from all disciplines/tastes with the promise of being able to monetize their following directly according to what the market is willing to pay. The future looks pretty amazing guys...

Proof Damus is superior: https://image.nostr.build/4fe15d1810d4031c6fb438cbe198282265806ad634e89c6f07d2acfe63a79bbf.jpg https://image.nostr.build/c52a2f5814af27ef02f05a0e3cfd6f7ee0958246111015c55b74eb920f1719ea.jpg

I just downloaded it and bought $5 worth of SATS and got only 6k ish. Ugh! SATS are getting expensive. Zaps are the anthem. Why is Apple still throttling Damus if they allow primal zapping ability? You are right though, it is smooth.

@jb55 is a baller for posting this. Thank you sir. People might think there’s fierce competition between nostr clients, but that’s not the case. It’s not Primal vs. Damus. It’s Primal AND Damus AND Amethyst AND Snort AND Coracle AND countless others. Believe me when I say it: Nostr UX is going to get insanely great. We will blow the legacy web out of the water. nostr:note1nu089e79xqyq2xlg4usa3v42hg0shdewc3nnflx0f454xezuujnqt55aqg

I was reading and could not connect the dots at first. It is like facebook praising X (not exactly of course, as these are clients, not platforms, but it is a somewhat decent analogy still). Potential of open protocols like nostr, where all the contribution is beneficial to all the contributors is insane. Loving it.

I am still with you, Will. And doesn’t Primal force it’s user to give their credentials for their wallet in order to recieve zaps??? I think I’ve heard that before somewhere… but I don’t want to spreas any FUDs here. I am asking.

I came here from X, hoping for a real freedom of speech as they started censoring me when I tried to speak about stuff that's not allowed here. Hello — I'm here to punch y'all with truthbombs that will get you banned everywhere else. It's good to be here!

The interface is very slick, but I find it’s too slow to load content, and it’s still light on features. The built-in wallet is nice to have, but it doesn’t offer the search and discovery features I want and sometimes I don’t see replies that are visible on other clients.