how do you ensure people you don't follow and are not interested in can't reply to your notes? 

 mute 

 nah 

 That mostly works, but it misses the opportunity for community growth on Nostr and, as we've seen, results in low user retention when they fail to find meaningful connections. Every other social media platform that has succeeded has done so because of the communities people find and build. This is what keeps users coming back day after day, and we need that if we want to grow to mainstream adoption. Although, I understand some people prefer stagnation when they are comfortable.