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Gitstr: Send and receive Git patches over Nostr

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Re: Gitstr: Send and receive Git patches over Nostr

#31

Post by alchemist1e9 »

evbogue wrote: post #21
Nzen wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found Ryabitsev's 2019 meditation [0] about maybe using git with secure scuttlebutt interesting (though not terribly compelling). Ryabitsev's fantasy scenario involves a developer exchanging git patches for a particular project via phones, to a laptop. Because that person uses secure scuttlebutt, the bug tracking thread is part of the enabling software, rather than out of band. I am of the impression that Ryabitsev…

The referenced article does not mention git-ssb, which was actually used for some time to develop the Patchbay and Decent clients for Secure Scuttlebutt! https://scuttlebot.io/apis/community/git-ssb.html Git-ssb went far beyond just sending and receiving patches. You could actually clone, pull, and push a repo between your friends and your friends friends.

I remember discovering git-ssb and thinking wow this is it, this is how code can be uncensored and decentralized.

Does this Nostr based approach solve the problem as well or should they be looking at git-ssb and extending it?

It seems extremely likely governments and courts all across worlds will be increasingly threatened by code in the next decade, so pretty important that a censorship resistant infrastructure is built asap.

Re: Gitstr: Send and receive Git patches over Nostr

#32

Post by sureglymop »

I don't really understand Nostr. Without having your own personal relay or website, how can you publish your public key? (or without a trusted centralized authority)

And if you do have a website where you publish your private key, why wouldn't you just publish your content there?

How do you manage public keys you trust? Is this something a client implementation should do?

What happens when all relays you write to go down? You lost all your followers? How would they learn of the new relays you write to? Doesn't really make sense in terms of free speech. Sure, you can still write/publish but if no one knows where anymore isn't that the same as having disappeared/been banned?

I do understand that "nostr is just the protocol" but what makes this usable at all in practice?

Re: Gitstr: Send and receive Git patches over Nostr

#33

Post by NortySpock »

iteratethis wrote: post #28
rakoo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By definition, an instance will only block instances it doesn't trust, so yes, only untrustworthy instances are blocked by an instance that doesn't trust them The mistake is believing that all instances behave the same and block the same. The whole point of federation is that every instance chooses who it wants to block.

That's not how it works at all. Admins pressure other admins in apply the same blocks, or risk getting defederated. The entire thing is ran by power hungry bullies.

Sure, but at least this time it's more than one power-hungry moderator. In the forums of the 90s, if a forum moderator banned you from the server in the middle of a flamewar, that was it.

Now at least there could be (in theory) regional blocs of federated servers that share content. I heard some people are proposing a common account interchange format, so you could migrate accounts? (not being in the fediverse yet, I don't really know...)

Re: Gitstr: Send and receive Git patches over Nostr

#34

Post by throwaway420690 »

sureglymop wrote: post #32

I don't really understand Nostr. Without having your own personal relay or website, how can you publish your public key? (or without a trusted centralized authority) And if you do have a website where you publish your private key, why wouldn't you just publish your content there? How do you manage public keys you trust? Is this something a client implementation should do? What happens when all relays you write to go…

You sign messages with your key and then publish it to any relays you want. Once your message is signed, it is good to go on any relay.

You manage pubkeys you trust by signing a message with a list of pubkeys you trust, simple as that.

People can learn about what relays you are on by (again) signing a message that states which relays you are publishing to.

If all relays go down you just send your messages to any other relay.

FYI, a signed message is just a simple json object with string of content, list of tags, time, your pubkey and a signature. “Notes and other stuff”

Re: Gitstr: Send and receive Git patches over Nostr

#35

Post by acdha »

wolverine876 wrote: post #29
poulpy123 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried nostr and I was impressed by how fast it is compared to the alternatives and by how seamless it is to connect to everyone. Unfortunately I'm not interested by the current content and I'm not sure a social media without censorship is viable on large scale

I don't know Nostr, but why can't you moderate anonymous forums? HN is anonymous. Or is Nostr literally non-censorable, in that I can't get an undesireable message or user off my personal feed.

Moderation is expensive, scaling with popularity and some really nasty points where you become popular enough to attract spammers, criminal activity, and mobs. HN survives because it doesn’t allow you to upload files, the 90s aesthetic keeps it a niche, and–most importantly–it’s the pet project of a very rich guy who is comfortable paying skilled people decent money to moderate it:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/th...

Despite that, usernames and their corresponding IPs get blocked routinely and we still see spam regularly even if only for a brief time.

Any forum will have the same problem: get popular and whacking spammers becomes a full-time grind. Allow people to upload files and you’ll have the FBI asking why you’re facilitating transfer of pirated movies, CSAM, etc. Have the wrong people decide to use private messages and now the FBI is back asking if you knew they were planning terrorist attacks.

None of those are completely impossible, of course, but they end up being expensive and burning out volunteers. Limiting anonymity helps, but only so much - it’s just an expensive space to be in.

Re: Gitstr: Send and receive Git patches over Nostr

#36

Post by DANmode »

sureglymop wrote: post #32

I don't really understand Nostr. Without having your own personal relay or website, how can you publish your public key? (or without a trusted centralized authority) And if you do have a website where you publish your private key, why wouldn't you just publish your content there? How do you manage public keys you trust? Is this something a client implementation should do? What happens when all relays you write to go…

Who doesn't have a homepage, that wants one?

It can be a Twitter bio, a (gulp) keybase page, or a personally hosted page.

Re: Gitstr: Send and receive Git patches over Nostr

#39

Post by rglullis »

solarkraft wrote: post #20
poulpy123 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried nostr and I was impressed by how fast it is compared to the alternatives and by how seamless it is to connect to everyone. Unfortunately I'm not interested by the current content and I'm not sure a social media without censorship is viable on large scale

> I'm not sure a social media without censorship is viable on large scale Right, it absolutely isn't. Some form of censorship is vital. This claim becomes more agreeable when substituting "censorship" with the almost-synonymous word "moderation".

Nostr's idea of "moderation/censorship" is quite simple: you (or your relay admin) can drop whatever content you don't want to see or promote. It's no different than email servers, and (as a system) it works just fine even if you are surrounded by bad actors.

Re: Gitstr: Send and receive Git patches over Nostr

#40

Post by jgilias »

RIMR wrote: post #5

Nostr really feels to me like the blockchain: An incredible novel solution desperately in search of a problem to solve. The engineering behind this is neat, but I have no idea why this is useful.

Nostr can be thought of as an open, decentralized, censorship resistant messaging layer with a built-in micro payments system.

Regarding why this might be useful. Remember when youtube-dl got taken down from GitHub? I think it’s now back after all the outcry. But the point stands, if you develop something that someone powerful might not like, a Nostr based git solution for that might make sense.

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