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New to Nostr? Read this

Your beginner's guide to Nostr. Welcome to freedom.

I've heard Nostr described as intergalactic war technology, but here we are shitposting on it. How fun!

Nostr is our chance at remaking social media, consciously. Have you seen Max Demarco's Nostr Documentary yet? Check it out when you have time --> Social Media is Broken. Can We Fix It?

What do I post?!?

Post whatever you want. There are no rules.

Here's how to make a first post that will help you get seen by the network as opposed to feeling like you just posted into a void:

Intro Post

  • Introduce yourself.

  • Say how you found Nostr.

  • Say what you're interested in/what you do for fun or work.
  • Add a photo(s) or video(s).

And most importantly, add the hashtag #introductions

If you're on Primal, make sure you set up your wallet so you can receive zaps. Do this by pressing the lightning bolt.

Zaps are payments sent to other users as a way of tipping to content creators. Zaps utilize the Bitcoin Lightning network and are almost instant and near free.

Zaps represent the only fundamentally new innovation in social media. Everything else is a distraction. - Jack Dorsey

Check out this intro post from Dr. Ken Berry for inspiration! Also, tag me @paulinthejungle in the comment of your introductions post so I can see it!

How to Grow a Following/Best Practices

Zap - Zaps are the easiest way into someone's subconscious. Almost every time I receive a zap from someone new, I check out their profile. Especially if it has a custom message.

Change your custom zap amount and message on Primal. Do that by going to settings --> Zaps and customizing the top bubble. Once customized, every time you press the lightning bolt underneath someone's post, you send them money with whatever amount selected. Press and hold for a custom amount and message.

And if you really want to advertise yourself/brand, do what is called "zapvertising". Go to the trending tabs and zap the highest amount on each post with a message.

Load your Primal wallet by buying up to $5 worth of sats by clicking the dollar sign in the top right. You can receive sats on chain, and over the lightning network.

Say GM - Wish people good morning and comment on their good morning posts. Nostr loves this and it's a way for you to get your brand out there.

Ask questions - There are no dumb questions and people are nice generally. If you do have a question, end the note with the hashtag #asknostr.

Read/Write Blogs - Log in to Primal on web by visiting primal.net on your computer. Go to the reads section, and click on "my articles" to write blog posts. Copy and pasting your existing blogs from your website, substack, or medium should work like a charm.

There are not too many authors yet on Nostr. Your work will definitely stand out.

Feed Creation - Check out this video to get a glimpse of what is possible with Primal's advanced search tool. And this video to see how to navigate the app.

Nostr is Organic

Nostr is a more organic social media. There's no central algorithm that may or may decide to pick up your content. It's just people interacting on a protocol. Be the engagement that you want to see.

Post what your heart desires. You can use it as a vlog, a diary, a photo collection, or all of the above. Nostr wants all of it, and there are multiple ways to view content depending on which client you are using.

If you're reading this now, you are extremely early. We have the chance to bootstrap a new social network. One that is principled and uncontrolled by big tech or governments. And this really matters

See and play with more nostr apps here: nostrapps.com

How to find people?

Check out the follow packs in our explore page! And you can make your own at https://following.space/.

Check out each tab in the explore page to explore the nostrverse.

Nostr Terms

npub - this is your public key and it's how nostr recognizes your profile.

nsec - Your password. Keep this safe. If you lose your phone and don't have a copy of this somewhere, it's gone forever. This is not the blog for key management, but expect better solutions in the near future.

You can find your key pair in the settings on the sidebar of your Primal app.

nip-05 - this is your human readable nostr address. There are many places to create your own nip05. You can get a Primal name by subscribing to Primal premium. For example, mine is paul@primal.net. You can put this into any client to find my profile as opposed to putting in my npub.

Zap Sats - Zaps are micropayments of bitcoin. 1 bitcoin = 100 million "sats" which is short for Satoshis.

Clients - Nostr apps.

Relays - When you post your content, it's stored on relays. Anyone can run a relay. This is what makes Nostr decentralized. Check what relays you're connected to by going to settings --> network.

PV- Pura vida. Nostr's first "un"conference was held in Costa Rica. Pura vida is the national slogan in Costa Rica and it is basically encapsulates the vibe of Nostr imho.

Hungry for more Nostr knowledge? Here's a great post with quite a few resources. Feel free to message me on Nostr with any questions!

Have fun, tell your friends, and pura vida.

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