Oddbean new post about login | logout When is the “right” time to explain nostr to a newbie? Why? 1) before app install 2) during app install 3) after app install 4) never 5) other (kindly expand) cc @Derek Ross @fiatjaf @franzap @Linda @elidy
After they lost their first key
Passkeys are starting to become commonplace nowadays. A good integration with a passkey manager like Bitwarden in order to store one's name would be fantastic. Perhaps something to hold off on until FIDO finally standardises passkey exports, though.
Before app install. A simple overview of what Nostr is so the newbie can come in knowing what this protocol is all about. Additional heavy discussions on things like censorship, their data, and speech can come later.
None do the above. Don’t scare them.
4 sounds novel!
I'd say it would vary by audience.
1) information about the possibilities, 2) information during the installing process (maybe skip-able), 3) support/information about the apps & co. (It’s not so easy to find specific information when you google it, time brings better results anyway, Q&As about the apps?) 4) information should be there when needed, but not forced
I would say it’s also about showing people the magic of Nostr rather than telling them. The magic being your social graph goes with you everywhere. What are the use cases of encouraging people to download and install a second Nostr app? If I am in Damus and I see an event from CoMingle that I want to RSVP to in comingle - what does that workflow look like and how do we make it simple for folks but also give them the ah ha moment? I don’t have the exact answer but that is the path I would pursue based on onboarding people to Nos and then Primal for zaps. You could see the light bulb go off when they logged into Primal with their nsec that they created in Nos.
Tear off the training wheels and shove 'em down the hill
Never. We don't explain HTTP to users.
Explain the use case, not the protocol. You don't explain Facebook's infrastructure to prospective Facebook users, you just show them how to post pictures of their cats and tag their friends, because that's the value proposition. That's what makes that platform useful and relevant to their life. The primary distinguishing features / use cases for Nostr vs. something like Facebook are that Facebook Inc. decides how to curate your feed, it's centrally owned/controlled, and might end up defunct in the future, whereas Nostr has none of those qualities and puts control back in the user's hands. If the person you're talking to about Nostr doesn't care about those things, or even has good or personal reasons for *preferring* Facebook's qualities, then so be it; let the network effect do its thing and just tell them that you can be found on Nostr rather than Facebook. If you fancy taking a stab at persuading them to change those preferences or just sharing why you have your own preferences, feel free to go for it, but appealing to the technology is rarely relevant or persuasive. Appeal to the personal impact instead.
When it comes to educating about the concepts behind Nostr — well that’s a full time job— as it all contributes to be bigger memeplex narrative of the Dweb and Bitcoin. information and money is worth a fortune if arranged in a meaningful way for the USER.
"It looks like just any other app. Who cares? " Now that I think of it......The paradigm shifting might be too high IQ for some tho, now that I think of it. Most still can't grok bitcoin, and never will.
That's precisely the point actually. If you don't sell them on the idea of Nostr why on Earth would they care about installing a less polished version of whatever social platform with no users? We have to sell Nostr to people, and we're still in the phase in which we have to attract people who are capable of understanding and caring.