Oddbean

This has been the historical arguement for censorship..."hey, there are 'things' that we all agree should be censored" (e.g., child porn). But historically that has always been the "nose under the camel's tent" - it leads to more and more censorship, and pretty soon we're back where we started. And it's faulty logic to say "well if you don't want censorship, then you're for child porn" (or something similar). That's simply a way to silence an opposing view via personal attacks... Make no mistake-this is a VERY complicated and nuanced topic. But we're now on the precipice of totalitarianism in the world PRECISELY because we began to allow censorship, and feeling that "some" censorship is "ok".... Consequently, I am passionate about Nostr--it is our last hope for free speech. We MUST proceed with extreme caution, not take the "easy" way out, and CERTAINLY we must not repeat our historical mistakes .

If you want absolutely no ability to filter any content whatsoever (censorship) to exist for users and relay owners, then you by extension do want to subject people to child porn and other unwanted content. That is literally what you are saying. Your argument is faulty. You can't have freedom and also tell others what they must allow on their relays, networks, and devices. I am not "silencing" your viewpoint. I'm simply laying out what your point of view is and disagreeing with it. You can run your own relay and so can the spammers. That's the historical difference that you're leaving out. You guys can have it! That doesn't mean the rest of us want to be involved and it certainly doesn't mean we must sink our ships just so you can be on it. I even stated in my post that different relays and clients would disagree on where the lines are drawn and people would thus need to be somewhere else. You're not off the network under that model. You just may not be on my screen, where you seem to think you have an inherent right to be. You don't.

So... Let's suppose a relay operator "filters" out spam--users are happy, and they sign up for that relay. And it pospers--in fact, it becomes one of the most utilized relays on Nostr... And...then let's suppose that relay operator at some point in the future decides that "Hunter's Laptop" is disinformation, and for the good of his users he begins "filtering" that...but...he never tells his users. You can (of course) think of many such examples. And yes in this model what and how to "filter" becomes the choice of each relay operator...and yet (if so) it also then becomes the RESPONSIBILITY of those relay operators to act altruistically, and to not become individual arbiters of truth. This then becomes the proverbial "slippery slope"... And while advocates would say "I'd never censor 'Hunter's Laptop'" the unfortunate truth is (likely) that some relay operators will be tempted to inject their own biases into their relays. How will relay users then know what's being "filtered" (censored) by the relay operators? Or will users need to blindly trust those operators to not censor something else? And isn't that exactly what happened with Facebook and Twitter (and why Nostr was "born" in the first place)?

WE must not do anything. YOU must. That's literally my whole point. You don't have to censor spammers or child pornography (or whatever else) on your relays. I don't want to associate with those sorts so I (not we) want the ability to choose not to. It seems as though @jb55 agrees on spam at least. Freedom of association is an often forgotten aspect of free speech