el / El is on Nostr

Writing things down.

DMs (that actually reach me):
sibericana@proton.me

Last Notes

2026-10-20 17:18:28 UTC

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I don’t own a single piece of jewelry. I do have an old apple watch that I wear when I play tennis, but that’s about it.
Are you still trying to figure out if I’m a bot? Because I feel like this isn’t helping my case.

2026-10-20 03:06:06 UTC

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https://image.nostr.build/5b3afdb3606119dc37d1d50ab7678bd4a177aab1b421f619fd5033b4e6a5d666.jpg

2026-10-12 01:51:42 UTC

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You said that Bitcoin isn’t about getting rich and Nostr isn’t about getting famous. Why not?
I can understand that neither was necessarily created for those purposes, but surely that doesn’t mean people can’t use them that way. I’ve read plenty of stories about people treating Bitcoin as a speculative investment, sometimes taking extraordinary financial risks in the hope of making a fortune. So, for some people, getting rich is very much the point.
And as for Nostr, isn’t it ultimately a social network? One thing I’ve heard repeatedly since joining is that Nostr can be whatever you want it to be. So why couldn’t someone use it to build a substantial audience, become influential, or even become famous?
One day I somehow stumbled across a list of Nostr accounts ranked by follower count, from highest to lowest. I have no idea how I did it but I do remember seeing accounts with 200-300k followers. Who are these people? A few accounts belong to nostr builders so I get why nostr users would follow them, but others didn’t seem that way. I’m also suspecting that the true human nostr user count is probably under 30k so how did those accounts built those audiences here? In your opinion.

2026-10-12 01:36:48 UTC

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I posted the second one last night since I didn’t do it last weekend. You were driving through the tropical storm at the time (you must be in Key West by now, where else would you find tropical storms?!)

2026-09-28 15:22:12 UTC

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I think you’re implying that complexity somehow protects Nostr’s good qualities, and that’s where I disagree with you.
Why would flattening the learning curve require destroying what makes Nostr unique, flexible or powerful? You’re treating technical power and user-facing complexity as though they’re the same thing. They don’t have to be. You can have an extraordinarily sophisticated system underneath and an interface that exposes almost none of that sophistication unless or until the user wants it. That’s basically the history of consumer computing.
And I’m not convinced that people willing to tolerate a steep learning curve are necessarily more capable. They may simply be unusually motivated to tolerate this particular learning curve. A brilliant novelist, surgeon, architect, entrepreneur, physicist, chef or filmmaker might encounter Nostr, decide it’s unnecessarily annoying, and leave. Their unwillingness to learn relay management tells us approximately nothing about their intelligence or what they might have contributed.
How much of Nostr’s complexity actually needs to be visible to the person using it?
Also, let me make sure I understood the other part correctly. You’re saying getting through the door is easy, but what happens once you’re inside has been debated for years and nobody has really solved it yet.
So you guys built this extraordinary building, opened the front door, and have spent the last few years standing in the hallway arguing about the floor plan?

2026-09-27 03:05:03 UTC

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Ok. This remains a niche hobby. Another argument for the hashtag directory. Someone could be witnessing Kelvin–Helmholtz clouds right now and I don’t know.

2026-09-25 04:05:49 UTC

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How many bots do I have?

2026-09-24 12:49:44 UTC

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It looks like you’ve seen this movie before. Unfortunately, today is already day 5 and I’m slightly past the “I’d like someone to build it exactly the way I envision it.” I’ve tried 3 different clients last night and kind of moved from imagining what Nostr could become to being rather disappointed by what it currently is. I’m now contemplating whether I owe Nostr a gracious farewell post, out of respect for what it could become.
Although, if the urge to build your own app is practically a rite of passage around here, perhaps I’m not the only one wondering why a decentralized publishing protocol that offers creators independence from individual platforms has yet to produce a sufficiently compelling environment for people like me.
At least it’s reassuring to know I’m not the only one. Thank you.

2026-09-23 21:55:32 UTC

Dear #Nostr community,
It’s only my 4th day here, and someone has kindly offered to help me explore different clients. She just needs a screenshot of my public and private keys. What’s the best way to send it to her if my DMs aren’t working?
I originally registered through #Primal, but I’ve since learned that Android devices might offer a more interesting Nostr experience. Unfortunately, I’m a self-confessed #normie, and I haven’t quite figured out a lot of stuff yet.
Just kidding.
I haven’t lost my #nsec (yet).
Just checking if y’all are still paying attention.
#AskNostr

2026-09-23 15:45:04 UTC

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sibericana@proton.me I’m not that bad with technology !!

2026-09-23 04:42:10 UTC

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Thank you! A worldwide craft fair is a much more different description than anything involving protocols and relays. I came here to write, but I’m beginning to suspect I’ll be staying for the people. Speaking of people, how do you know if you’re talking to a human or to a bot? What’s the social etiquette here, given that so many people use pseudonyms and anonymous profile pictures? Is it acceptable to ask someone their age, gender (I’m not sure if that’s acceptable to ask in real life either), where they live, etc? Also, thank you for the #asknostr tip! I’ve already used that but is there somewhere I can find commonly used hashtags, particularly ones related to learning about Nostr and its culture? I’d like to familiarize myself with the local customs.

2026-09-22 23:47:02 UTC

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Nostr would occasionally come up on YouTube in various videos. I thought it would be time consuming and hard to figure out how to register. It took me a bit over a year to finally do it. Ironically, registering on Primal took less than a minute.

2026-09-22 23:14:14 UTC

Today was one of those wonderfully slow rainy days, and I spent a considerable portion of it contemplating the fact that I overnight became 11 cents richer. More importantly, these 11 cents amount to 124 satoshis, which means that, through circumstances I still do not entirely understand, I am now suddenly invested in the future of #Bitcoin.
And while I am still trying to understand why complete strangers on the internet give one another money for what appears to be no reason at all, I have already made peace with the possibility that my literary career may have peaked financially on my third day on #Nostr.
Three days ago, I would have confidently declared that I cannot be bought. Today, I have 124 satoshis, and I sincerely wish Bitcoin a long and prosperous future.
#Sibericana

2026-09-21 03:05:12 UTC

I came here thinking I had no particular business being on Nostr. The more I understand what you’ve built, the less I understand why so many of you use it primarily as a Bitcoin discussion forum. I suspect this place has considerably more to offer than its locals have yet had occasion to discover.