plusultra on Nostr: Thanks for the detailed response. I'm new to Nostr (3 days) and have been trying to ...
Thanks for the detailed response. I'm new to Nostr (3 days) and have been trying to figure out if editing (and deleting etc.) was a thing.
I get the "immutable blockchain" argument, but I don't think double spending resistance is very relevant to notes. The bait and switch risk sounds almost entirely theoretical, as I can't imagine anyone losing sleep over zapping a few cents to a note that was later edited. Maybe, for some select accounts, it could be important that the notes were immutable (politicians, reporters, official accounts, etc.)
However, I think 99+ percent of users would prefer to have the ability to edit and delete. Also, feature parity with centralized competitors is important if the goal is to be competitive and to steal their market share.
I agree with fiatjaf (npub180c…h6w6) assertion above that editing is a crucial, unnegotiable feature. I strongly believe that without it, Nostr will not achieve mainstream adoption.
For example, I have an associate with millions of followers on X, and was thinking of trying to talk him into Nostr, but I know that not being able to edit and delete would be a deal killer for him, so I'm not going to bother.
Maybe it could somehow be a user-selected feature. So users could elect to make their notes editable or immutable during account creation. Maybe this could also help with backward compatability - new accounts have the edit: [yes/no] flag, and old accounts without the edit flag would default to [no].
There could be a small locked/unlocked icon, dot, or whatever on the user profile, so other users would know if their timeline was editable or immutable.
This way, the "immutable blockchain" purists could maintain their preference for immutability, and the other 99% of users could enjoy the ability to edit and delete.
Obiously, the software engineering challenge also needs to be addressed.
Given the differing strong opinions from various programmers, it sounds like it would be helpful if someone influential and widely respected (like jack (npub1sg6…f63m)) made a recommendation regarding the path forward. Vitalik serves this necessary role for the decentralized Ethereum community, and without it, they wouldnt have made nearly as much progress on major protocol upgrades like proof of stake, pre-compiles, blobs, L2s, etc. etc.
I have no clout or influence here, but that's my 2 Sats, FWIW
I get the "immutable blockchain" argument, but I don't think double spending resistance is very relevant to notes. The bait and switch risk sounds almost entirely theoretical, as I can't imagine anyone losing sleep over zapping a few cents to a note that was later edited. Maybe, for some select accounts, it could be important that the notes were immutable (politicians, reporters, official accounts, etc.)
However, I think 99+ percent of users would prefer to have the ability to edit and delete. Also, feature parity with centralized competitors is important if the goal is to be competitive and to steal their market share.
I agree with fiatjaf (npub180c…h6w6) assertion above that editing is a crucial, unnegotiable feature. I strongly believe that without it, Nostr will not achieve mainstream adoption.
For example, I have an associate with millions of followers on X, and was thinking of trying to talk him into Nostr, but I know that not being able to edit and delete would be a deal killer for him, so I'm not going to bother.
Maybe it could somehow be a user-selected feature. So users could elect to make their notes editable or immutable during account creation. Maybe this could also help with backward compatability - new accounts have the edit: [yes/no] flag, and old accounts without the edit flag would default to [no].
There could be a small locked/unlocked icon, dot, or whatever on the user profile, so other users would know if their timeline was editable or immutable.
This way, the "immutable blockchain" purists could maintain their preference for immutability, and the other 99% of users could enjoy the ability to edit and delete.
Obiously, the software engineering challenge also needs to be addressed.
Given the differing strong opinions from various programmers, it sounds like it would be helpful if someone influential and widely respected (like jack (npub1sg6…f63m)) made a recommendation regarding the path forward. Vitalik serves this necessary role for the decentralized Ethereum community, and without it, they wouldnt have made nearly as much progress on major protocol upgrades like proof of stake, pre-compiles, blobs, L2s, etc. etc.
I have no clout or influence here, but that's my 2 Sats, FWIW