Coming from Reddit/Lemmy, Here is my feedback

[MrLuxuri]

Hey guys! I am coming from Reddit, I've been a long-time Redditor for years and recently in the wake of API changes, I've been looking at Reddit alternatives (though I've looking been in support of free, open source software - FOSS), have spent most of my time on Lemmy, another open source, user-funded, decentralized platform built on top of ActivityPub, similar to Mastodon, but I've always been intrigued by Nostr, and being able to much more easily host my own relay compared to an actual server, and the fact that I don't have to choose a server when joining like I have to on Mastodon or Lemmy.

I wish I found out zapddit earlier, I didn't actually know there was an aggregation and discussion platform like Reddit for Nostr, this seems like the only one I am glad to have found it, because every other client seems way too focused on being a Twitter alternative.

That's my mini introduction, but let's get into the feedback:

1. Community and Moderation: This is a big aspect I see missing on Zapddit, it's a great idea to categorize topics based on hashtags, but it would be great if we can allow moderators to claim hashtags, and then upload a profile picture/banner for that hashtag. I know we can't bring the exact parity of how reddit exactly works here, nostr is unique and I really like it so far, but moderators are a huge core part of reddit. Moderators are responsible for ensuring that the content posted in their subreddit is relevant, appropriate, and adheres to the subreddit's rules and guidelines (speaking of rules, it would be great if moderators can display rules, and moderate content to a certain level). Why? Moderation like reddit helps keep the content clean and overall improves the experience for other users in the community, it also makes reddit very self-sustaining because the reddit developers don't have to take all the moderation in their own hands (that will be a headache for so many communities), it will also give more identity to every community. There is also a HUGE mod community on reddit, if that aspect is not on zapddit, it won't be considered as a real alternative among the reddit community and the favour will go towards other alternatives like Lemmy.

2. Profiles: When I click a profile, every single time it annoyingly takes me to another app called snort, but I am here for the forum/aggreation and discussion experience, I don't want to be throwed into something else that again looks like microblogging which I am totally not into. It would be great if profile and extra can happen inside zapddit.

3. Connect with the developers: In every other open source project the dev team are also on Matrix, would be great if y'all can do the same, it's much better to discuss and give feedback to devs in a chatroom directly.

4. Landing Page: Just like Lemmy, Mastodon, reddit and etc, can we have a landing or homepage first? Because with a homepage, we can link our github, matrix and wiki (especially wiki, I would love to contribute and make the onboarding process much easier for zapddit, for example how creating an account works and etc) and of course, get into zapddit.

Really love what you folks have done here so far, keep it up and let me know what you think about the feedback.

[MrLuxuri]

Oops sorry, closed by mistake.

[vivganes]

Thanks a lot for taking the time to write this feedback. This made the day of @trycatchkamal and me 😄

Give us this week to fully process your feedback and to come back with a response.

Thanks once again!

[MrLuxuri]

No worries! @vivganes

Not to come off pushy or hurrying, but please do act fast because things are moving fast every since Reddit announced about it's stupid API changes. I am in the r/modcouncil and r/modcoord, people are favoring lemmy as the final alternative and destination, but we are still in the planning stages, would really appreciate if we can move fast regarding the community and moderation point for Zapddit.

There is a blackout (strike) planned on June 12th by many communities, and all of those communities will be set private for 24-48 hours. This is when the migration will start.

Check out these posts: https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/13ws4w3/had_a_call_with_reddit_to_discuss_pricing_bad/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/13x9sy7/now_that_reddit_are_killing_3rd_party_apps_on/

Thank you and looking forward in hearing back from you!

[MrLuxuri]

Hey! I just came across this post

It looks like users need to use bitcoins to upvote/downvote? The average user from Reddit would have no idea about that and will most probably not be onboard with that just to up/downvote a post, so please do consider just letting users do that without involving any cryptocurrency there.

I have no idea at the moment, how to upvote or downvote, clicking on it does not do much.

Would appreciate some reconsideration and clarity here :)

[MrLuxuri]

@vivganes Any update?

[ralyodio]

i oppose the notion of moderated and tag owners. we'll just turn tags into .com squatters if we do that. eveyrone will register the popular tags while trying to sell the off at a profit and the system will become largely useless.

[vivganes]

@vivganes Any update?

Hey @MrLuxuri

Here are somethings that we have done since last weekend, to make it a little easier for reddit fans to experience zapddit.

1. We have added a 'Lurky Lurkerson' mode, where one can browse zapddit and see nostr content without creating a new account.
2. We have added a 'Create new nostr account' option at startup where one can create a new nostr identity, without going anywhere else.
3. We have made a brand new onboarding wizard to onboard new users to zapddit without much confusion.
4. We have added ability to upvote and downvote without using zaps (bitcoins)

That being said, remember that zapddit is not and will probably never be the replacement for current-day's reddit. We want to stay true to the #nostr philosophy of censorship-resistance. zapddit is a client where you can browse #nostr in reddit-style.

We are nostr-client first, then a reddit-style web app, in that order!

What is not available in nostr ecosystem right now?

1. Communities - There are efforts now to work on this. This started with a proposal by @vitorpamplona
2. Reddit-style moderation - Moderation is a thin ice to walk on, where it can turn into centralized censorship. So, the nostr community needs to think hard and come up with something that does not go against the individual right to censorship resistance. We need time to create a working solution that is true to nostr philosophy. This work can't happen with haste.

Thanks a lot for your interest in the nostr universe :) Please keep letting us know what we could do to make it better.

[ralyodio]

how do I get ssr to work, if i do a hard refresh i get a 404.

[vivganes]

how do I get ssr to work, if i do a hard refresh i get a 404.

As long as you get zapddit page, please don't worry about the 404 (perhaps from brave browser I suppose)

We are using a (dirty) workaround to support urls like /feed that serves our app in a 404 page too.

Are you getting something other than zapddit page in the 404 response?

[ralyodio]

its almost any page if i do a cmd+shift+R refresh (which clears cache). This is a common issue with spas that don't redirect 404s to ./index.html -- i'm just curious if that's the correct appraoch.

[ralyodio]

https://tags.break-19.com/t/losgatos

i posted this on r/losgatos and it gives you a 404 if you didn't come from index.html

[ralyodio]

try_files $uri $uri/ /index.html; need this in nginx, then it works :)