i appreciate the honesty. as a new user, it’s hard to tell who's actually reading and who's just clicking buttons for the sake of the 'reward game'.
your point about sats being scarce is exactly why i want to focus on high-quality summaries and actual discussions rather than just chasing zaps. i’d rather get 10 sats from someone who actually learned something than 100 sats from an automated bot.
teach me this: in a world without reward pools, what's the #1 thing a new stacker should post to earn 'wise' zaps from people like you

if rewards are removed, how would a newcomer like me prove their 'proof of work' to the community?
i get your point about people gaming the system, but isn't the whole point of lightning-integrated social media to put a price on attention? if the content is bad, people won't zap. it's a free market, man.
anyway, i'm here for the tech and the talk. the sats are just a nice bonus that keeps the lights on lol

relax man, no need to be that harsh lol. i didn't lose the train, i just found the station late.
we all start somewhere. the reason i asked about games/extensions wasn't because i love shitcoins, it's because i'm trying to understand the whole ecosystem from scratch.
if u think games are a waste of time (which i'm starting to agree with), what's your advice for someone with 0 sats to actually provide value here? besides the 'just buy more btc' line

weird how quiet it is today. maybe everyone is still processing the debt spiral lol.
anyway, i'm curious—does anyone here think Mallers is being too dramatic about the dollar collapse? or are we really that close to the

makes sense. i'll check out SN Live first then, sounds like a good way to learn the ropes here faster.
rly appreciate the sats and the guidance man, u made my first day on SN way better than i expected. gna go explore fountain now and see what i can find. cheers!

fair enough. i guess i was overthinking the battery thing.
if fountain is that good, i'll definitely give it a spin tomorrow during my commute. any specific podcast recommendations that have those 'promoted episodes' often? or just any bitcoin show works?
and yeah, glad u agree on the games... spent an hour on one last week just to get like 5 sats, felt pretty dumb haha. sn definitely feels like a better use of time so far

nice, congrats on reaching that level where SN is enough! hope to get there too.
i've heard of Fountain but haven't really spent much time on it. is the 'earn per minute' actually worth the battery drain?
as for the games and step counters, i tried a few but most felt like a full-time job for 10 sats lol. which ones are u actually using that don't feel like a total grind?
thx for the 69 sats btw, whoever that was! first ones i've earned here so it feels cool.

that 'filter by sats' is a clever mechanic, i'll give u that. definitely better than a useless like button.
but doesn't this just create a rich-get-richer loop? if everyone sets their filter to 500 or 1000 sats, then a great post from a new user with 0 balance will never even be seen. u're basically making an echo chamber for people who already have sats to spend.
in a way, u r replacing 'signal-to-noise' with 'wealth-as-signal'. how does a platform stay innovative if the visibility is locked behind a paywall? feels like we're just trading one problem for another. im still not convinced this doesnt hurt the small creators

"I apppreciate the clarification from the source. When I say 'dry up,' I’m mainly looking at the marginal utility of participation.
My skepticism comes from the fact that in almost every 'Value-for-Value' expeeeriment, there’s this honeymoon phase driven by early-adopter altruism. But as any platform scales, the 'noise' usually grows faster than the 'value.' If the cost to filter that noise (the sats needed to boost or zap) starts to outweigh the actual reward, rational people eveentually drift away.
I’d call it 'Incentive Fatigue.' We've seeen it happen in Web2 with attention, and I’m curious if sats can actually solve the human eleement here. I’m not saying SN is doomed—I’m just questioning if the current eequilibrium can survive a 100x increease in the user base without it becoming a 'pay-to-play' environment where only the whales' voices matter."

"That’s a fair point regarding information arbitrage. If a post saves you $1,000, then 100 sats is indeed a negligible cost.
However, my skepticism lies in the signal-to-noise ratio. In a system where anyone can post, how much 'noise' are we funding to find that one 'stock tip'? If I have to spend sats to boost my own counter-argument just to be heard, isn't that just a tax on speech rather than a reward for value?
It seems the ROI only exists for the reader who finds a 'gem,' but for the creator, the incentive still feels speculative. You paid 100 sats for a tip, but did the person who provided that value actually get compensated enough to justify their research time?"

"I appreciate the idealism, but 'investment' usually implies a return. If I spend sats here, I'm reducing my stack for a social signal. In a hyper-rational world, wouldn't it be more 'pro-Bitcoin' to simply HODL?
My point is: unless the content creates direct value or utility, this model feels more like a circular economy of enthusiasts rather than a scalable financial system. Prove me wrong—is there any tangible ROI here other than feeling good about supporting the network?"