So no question I’ve been enjoying lemmy, I love the freedom it offers and I love the seemingly simple and elegant framework it runs on however after having ditched Reddit for the hopes of a similar or improved content experience I have to say it is quite a bit smaller and therefore barren at times which is both a good and bad thing depending on your needs
And then of course there’s kbin and masterdon which from my understanding is a little more geared towards the twitter-like micro blogging
But this morning somehow I stumbled across nostr which I have never heard of but I was wondering if anyone out there has any experience with it? There’s a Web app like voyager at iris.to that makes browsing pretty simple…
My understanding is that Nostr isn’t any specific site or service, but rather a web framework, kind of like Lemmy.
However, unlike Lemmy, which is hosted by individual servers running their own instances of the Lemmy software that can communicate with each other but are still their own unique entities, Nostr seems to be taking a more blockchain-like approach to decentralization, from my understanding of their docs. I don’t think it’s actually using blockchain tech, though, but looks somewhat similar in principle. It looks like people can set up “relays” which seem to act as verifiable mirrors/backups of anything posted through Nostr’s network, which makes me think it operates not so much like blockchain, but more like Tor/onion networks.
That said, I clearly don’t know how it works. But their big selling point seems to be that it’s apparently “resistant to censorship”, and they focus a lot on network security, encryption, etc. So it sounds like it’s largely targeted toward people who are afraid of being “cancelled” on other platforms.
It makes me a bit worrisome about the risks a relay operator would be taking on, though. The people who seem to flock to these sorts of “free speech” platforms are generally the type to post dangerous or illegal content in general. Does running a Nostr relay put you at risk of hosting extremist or illegal content? With normal platforms, a hosting admin can remove what they want, but is that still doable with this so-called “censorship resistant” platform? It sounds like a liability nightmare.
I’m not trying to be an arrogant ass correcting you, but I think your answer is a good starting point.
but rather a web framework, kind of like Lemmy
To extrapolate a bit, any platform is going to have a protocol (lemmy uses ActivityPub), servers, and clients. Their site says nostr is the protocol, and there’s relays (servers) and clients that communicate using the nostr protocol.
it operates not so much like blockchain, but more like Tor/onion networks
I don’t think that’s quite right. The protocol itself does not encrypt the content of messages (althrough there’s no reason you couldn’t send encrypted content). The crypto stuff in this case just “signs” the content allowing everyone to verify that the message came from the purported author and hasn’t been edited.
If you have a private key, a public key, and a message, then you can use those three things to compute a signature.
If you have a signature, a public key, and a message, then you can confirm whether they match.
Therefore, only the person with a private key can author messages, and everyone with the public key can confirm that they are the author.
So in some ways you could say, your private key is like your own account or identity, and the public keys you keep track of are the accounts of your friends.
The “federation” methodology is interesting too. Relays don’t sync, they just store events from those clients which are connected to them.
In summary, as you said, it might be interesting for people that are worried about being “cancelled” or censored. On this platform it would not be possible to purge or alter someone’s messages, unless of course you got their private key.
It makes me a bit worrisome about the risks a relay operator would be taking on
I agree. I wouldn’t want to run a relay open to public signups. Conceivably if I had anything worth saying I might run a private relay just for myself or direct contacts.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: [email protected]
No such thing. Ask away!
!nostupidquestions is a community space dedicated to being helpful and answering each others’ questions on various topics.
Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All posts titles must include a question.
All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.
Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That’s it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it’s in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.
If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content. Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
Matrix Chat Room
To find & join our chat room, log into fluffychat.im(or any other matrix client) and put #nostupidquestions:matrix.org on the search bar.
Credits
Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!
My understanding is that Nostr isn’t any specific site or service, but rather a web framework, kind of like Lemmy.
However, unlike Lemmy, which is hosted by individual servers running their own instances of the Lemmy software that can communicate with each other but are still their own unique entities, Nostr seems to be taking a more blockchain-like approach to decentralization, from my understanding of their docs. I don’t think it’s actually using blockchain tech, though, but looks somewhat similar in principle. It looks like people can set up “relays” which seem to act as verifiable mirrors/backups of anything posted through Nostr’s network, which makes me think it operates not so much like blockchain, but more like Tor/onion networks.
That said, I clearly don’t know how it works. But their big selling point seems to be that it’s apparently “resistant to censorship”, and they focus a lot on network security, encryption, etc. So it sounds like it’s largely targeted toward people who are afraid of being “cancelled” on other platforms.
It makes me a bit worrisome about the risks a relay operator would be taking on, though. The people who seem to flock to these sorts of “free speech” platforms are generally the type to post dangerous or illegal content in general. Does running a Nostr relay put you at risk of hosting extremist or illegal content? With normal platforms, a hosting admin can remove what they want, but is that still doable with this so-called “censorship resistant” platform? It sounds like a liability nightmare.
I’m not trying to be an arrogant ass correcting you, but I think your answer is a good starting point.
To extrapolate a bit, any platform is going to have a protocol (lemmy uses ActivityPub), servers, and clients. Their site says nostr is the protocol, and there’s relays (servers) and clients that communicate using the nostr protocol.
I don’t think that’s quite right. The protocol itself does not encrypt the content of messages (althrough there’s no reason you couldn’t send encrypted content). The crypto stuff in this case just “signs” the content allowing everyone to verify that the message came from the purported author and hasn’t been edited.
If you have a private key, a public key, and a message, then you can use those three things to compute a signature.
If you have a signature, a public key, and a message, then you can confirm whether they match.
Therefore, only the person with a private key can author messages, and everyone with the public key can confirm that they are the author.
So in some ways you could say, your private key is like your own account or identity, and the public keys you keep track of are the accounts of your friends.
The “federation” methodology is interesting too. Relays don’t sync, they just store events from those clients which are connected to them.
In summary, as you said, it might be interesting for people that are worried about being “cancelled” or censored. On this platform it would not be possible to purge or alter someone’s messages, unless of course you got their private key.
I agree. I wouldn’t want to run a relay open to public signups. Conceivably if I had anything worth saying I might run a private relay just for myself or direct contacts.
No worries, you didn’t come off that way at all! I hate giving out bad info, so I appreciate you clarifying the things I got wrong on that.
Thank you for your response! Certainly gave me a good understanding
I think I’ll stick with Lemmy