Thread

It just occurred to me, due to a nostr bug, that it might actually be pretty cool to have social media hide *who authored* the posts on your TL to force a kind of double-blind perspective. You'd know the post or reply is (or probably is) from one of the people you follow, but you wouldn't be so quick to agree (and perhaps might even be more willing to disagree) if you aren't just smashing the heart button as a reflex because you like the guy. It might make discussions more communal and disagreements less personal if you knew that you're still talking to someone you generally like and respect, but you don't know whether it's "that one guy on the internet" or, like, your actual Mom. (Nostr, due to ramshackle Tor support, often displays notes from people without correctly fetching their profiles for me, so I find myself liking or replying or following people without having any idea as to their nym or avatar)

Replies (86)

↩ replying to Z2theach
To achieve this technically, perhaps you could take a zero-knowledge proof of the note and conceal the author… 24 hours later, the author could reveal the full note proving it was them. Proving the note was authored by a non-spam user, without revealing the author, would also be important for relays to avoid getting spammed with these shadow notes.
Yep, I personally like nostr without all the verification, avatars, bios and what not. Just npubs, messages and relays. Your identity is your signature and your ideas rest on their merit, not your name. "You" becomes the things you think and say, and proof that the same entity said them.
an anon mode or an anon feed would be pretty nice, would get to meet a lot of new people, which i’d otherwise might not meet. reddit has struck a pretty nice balance with that, it’s mostly anon, but as a long time user in a specific subreddit, you start recognising some of the folk there. curious if there’s a way to apply it here
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So many people want to try this feature. Even edward. I think a lot of this boils down to the twitter-style of most apps. But it doesn't have to be that way. There are clients catering more to communities or topic-based follows. Which sort of gets rid of the parasocial aspects, for the most part at least. Nostrudel is a great client for communities, if you haven't tried. Nostrudel.ninja
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Human communication relies on a schema that includes some context on the sender of the information. Am I receiving this information from my mother? from CNN? from a dude on Telegram I kinda know? All of this IS critical data that informs your processing of it. To remove or hide the sender on purpose IMO would be devastating to the actual sense of communication between humans and people would not like it. Additionally, you become much more susceptible to manipulation by spam bots if you lose the metadata of source.
This is very interesting idea. But how would you solve that social status thing where guy with 12000 followers simply gives bigger impression than someone with 200 every time you'll open their bio? Hide it? Some people dig being followed and build around it and I believe we need these idiots here as well. For growth we need to attract bunch of people addicted to their social media status.
We've become used to be identified online. I recently started using simplex chat as anonymous user and really like the idea of being unidentifiable . even if you do not know my legal name in nostr, my nostr name "hypnagog" simply becomes my surrogate identity. A chat system where posts aren't linked to any type of identifier is a great idea.
↩ replying to Matt
This is idea is perfect as it perhaps unwittingly accommodates familiarity as well. If a person knows you well enough to know your identity as a part of your immediate community, they will have no trouble identifying you on the platform, otherwise you are all acquaintances and should be treated as such. I might have misunderstood the concept, admittedly technology is not my strong suit. If I’m talking out of my rear, someone please let me know!
My impulse is to like the idea (not just because you wrote it and I respect you, lol). I would hope the identity or at least source materials would be accessible at some point, though. Otherwise I could see propaganda catching wildfire as it kinda short circuits media literacy
I actually just went through this TOR display issue with a previous post you made. Initially, I saw your note and started to respond. Then, the network caught up, and your profile populated, so I second guessed myself and deleted my response. My reaction made me scratch my head a bit. But, I think there is some internalized pressure to make some profound thought in response to bigger accounts. Maybe the high level of visibility is intimidating.
nostr のバグのせいで、ソーシャル メディアで TL 上の投稿を *作成者* 非表示にして、一種の二重盲検視点を強制するのは、実際には非常に素晴らしいことかもしれないと思いつきました。 その投稿や返信が自分がフォローしている人の誰かからのものである (またはおそらくそうである) ことはわかっているでしょうが、ただ単に非難しているだけではない場合は、すぐには同意しないでしょう (そしておそらく、もっと積極的に反対するかもしれません)。 あなたはその人が好きだから、反射的にハートボタンを押します。 あなたが一般的に好きで尊敬している人とまだ話しているが、それが「インターネット上のあの人」なのか、それとも実際の母親なのかはわからないとわかっていれば、議論はより共同的なものになり、意見の相違は個人的なものではなくなるかもしれません 。 (Nostr は、Tor のサポートが不安定なため、プロフィールを正しく取得せずに、人々からのメモを表示することがよくあります。そのため、私は、名前やアバターをまったく知らずに、人々に「いいね」をしたり、返信したり、フォローしたりしていることに気づきました) (Google翻訳) View quoted note →
This reminds me of a study that has been done in the uk in previous general elections. People are given policies without knowing which party has proposed them. Each time the result has been a majority win for the Greens.
tor is the ramshackle. i built this
GitHub
GitHub - indra-labs/indra: Distributed Virtual Private Network Powered By Bitcoin Lightning
Distributed Virtual Private Network Powered By Bitcoin Lightning - indra-labs/indra
 in the last 12 months. most of the protocol tests and implementation are there. it uses lightning payments and a slightly customised channel type (zero fee) inside the network and users pay for small sessions of bytes/seconds. the relays provide exit services that they advertise, minimally providing bitcoin and lightning services and whatever a relay operator wants to, at whatever price is practical for them. it could scale, unlike tor, because it has monetary incentive, and by using keysend/AMP lighting payments, the senders are hidden from the receivers. i would love to be able to work on getting it built full time but right now i'm so poor i'm doing linux administration and devops work and this afternoon i have a consultation for some trading bot dev work, which hopefully will involve some actual Go programming.
There's no reason why this could not be one the custom feeds you switch between. Let's say "Blind Discovery": image DVM's could help with filtering through notes that might interest you, that you didn't see yet (or any other algorithm). Then display all of that blinded. #customfeeds
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This reminds me of the ‘love is blind’ experiment from OkCupid a decade ago. On Valentines day they turned off all photos and let people match and find potential partners based on text alone.
the Guardian
OKCupid: we experiment on users. Everyone does
Dating service’s co-founder claims it lied to users to test theory about compatibility. By Alex Hern
. Users hated it, use of the app went down, but better relationships came out of it. ;-D
☝️THIS ! Exactly why I actively conceal the names when I’m browsing for a new font (yes, typography) because it’s such a nuisance. *Intrinsic qualities vs. extrinsic seduction*. “What’s in a name? A promise.”