Substr

Substr Update - Shared Nostr Events, Community Space Cards, Live Stream Polish

Quick build update from Substr. I’ve shipped a lot of product polish recently, but two bigger areas deserve a deeper explanation: Shared Nostr Events and community-level customization.

**Shared Nostr Event posts ** Substr is community-scoped by design. I intentionally do not load the full global Nostr firehose into every /s/. That keeps communities focused, but it also creates a practical issue: people often want to bring an existing Nostr post into a community thread.

So I added Share Nostr Event posting.

What this does:

• You can post a Nostr event reference directly into a substr.
• The shared card resolves richer content (mentions, links, media, video) instead of just showing raw IDs/URLs.
• Engagement actions (likes, zaps, replies) are wired toward the original event target, so interaction stays meaningful across clients.
• I improved repost compatibility so shared behavior is clearer outside Substr too.

Why I did it this way:

• In a global client, “repost” can assume broad feed context.
• In a community-scoped client, I need a wrapper that anchors the post inside a specific space while still respecting the original event.
• This is my bridge between “community context” and “cross-client interoperability.”

**Community space cards (making each /s/ more ownable) ** I also expanded moderator controls for the right-side “space” layer with dedicated cards:

• Message card (editable title/body)
• Social links card (compact icon-first links)
• Useful links card (curated title + URL entries)

This gives each community a stronger identity without turning setup into a heavy CMS flow.

I’m exploring how to make communities even more distinct and self-owned:

• stronger space identity patterns,
• clearer utility cards,
• better “what this community is for” signaling,
• and more creator/show/community-specific layouts over time.

Other smaller fixes

• Relay UX refinement: compact cards, status dots, clearer relay info.
• Signer/login flow cleanup with better QR/copy/manual paths.
• Mobile-first signer onboarding improvements (wizard flow, clearer steps).
• /s/ sharing improved for PWA (native share first, copy fallback).
• Atmospheric background behavior fixed (viewport-anchored, no stretch on long pages).
• Rich-text mention parsing improved (nostr:nprofile... support, including leading emoji cases).
• Clickable identity and /s/... badges expanded across more surfaces.
• Stream + chat improvements: better layout, publishing/read behavior, diagnostics, and interaction polish.

Cheers and on to the next one!

When you want to share an event, meetup, hackathon, conference, tour, or anything similar, you can now post it in the Event Substr created by

https://substr.network/s/events

Did some work on improving how posts and live stream URLs look when shared.

Clean OG tags are now in place, so previews show up properly across platforms — titles, images, the whole thing finally looks the way it should.

Small detail, big difference

GM 💪

Got some open-source art, illustrations or other media you wanna share? Or you hunting for some? Check out the Open Source Art Substr

https://substr.network/s/open-source-art

Stay Humble

GM ✌️ https://npub122wdrxx9gaf6reg52nzcd4m5u66qx85jm3c9gwgrsukkcelm0u2q0nfgdf.blossom.band/f458a00f475116a3a183780b4149249b638e18ad682204ebee3dd94b73bef644.jpg

We just shipped the first step towards livestreams on Substr.network

Moderators can now add a live stream by pasting a Nostr naddr. Stream + chat, directly inside the Substr. the foundation is there, but should build further on feedback.

From brainfart to execution. We’re almost there... 😄

Soon all you’ll need to do is paste your NADDR and your stream will be visible on Substr, including chat. Just needs some little tweaks and polish.

You can manage your own relays in Substr.network. just head over to settings, relays and add the relays you want, same for DM 's

GM still building. still learning.

Login Signer Flow Update

Spent some time tightening up the signer flow in Substr. We cleaned up the connect modal, made the remote signer option easier to understand, and added a few fallback paths for mobile when opening a signer app doesn’t work right away.

You can now connect through the app directly, use a QR code, copy a Nostr Connect link, or fall back to a manual bunker setup.

Todays theme is Brutalism 😎

GM

Should we add another post type? If so, which one? https://npub122wdrxx9gaf6reg52nzcd4m5u66qx85jm3c9gwgrsukkcelm0u2q0nfgdf.blossom.band/27f1b021660777d197133670268ff4b1b89c6e3ca752b0349dc7de45ae051cc6.jpg

GM Nostr 🤘✌️ https://npub122wdrxx9gaf6reg52nzcd4m5u66qx85jm3c9gwgrsukkcelm0u2q0nfgdf.blossom.band/bdbe46c2ea52682101bf0cd831c5d9af3dadebe34f27861ed7e1636f7aef3dda.jp

Add mentions or keep it clean?

I’m considering adding an @mention feature in posts and comments/replies. Not sure yet if it improves interaction or just adds noise. Curious how others feel about it.

Substr, For more logical feeds https://npub122wdrxx9gaf6reg52nzcd4m5u66qx85jm3c9gwgrsukkcelm0u2q0nfgdf.blossom.band/792d47652315be5659d7930fb3c07a9276f22a8e156e70ef02f44ca78de0c554.jpg

Goal for the coming days!

The goal in the coming days is to improve media uploads on Substr. Right now we’re using nostr.build with NIP-98, which works well as a starting point. Next step is moving towards a Blossom-based setup.

Happy Easter

Log off a bit, touch some grass Connect with the fam ✌️

A Prescription for Privacy | The Confab 30: Vik Sharɱa

In this Confab, Max sits down with Vik Sharɱa, founder and CEO of Cake Wallet, for a candid journey from his early hacking days on the Apple II, through decades in the steel industry, to discovering Bitcoin in 2013 and Monero in 2016.

Vik shares the eye‑opening moment Coinbase shut his account for a small darknet market purchase of antibiotics—an incident that catalysed his deep dive into privacy and ultimately inspired Cake Wallet’s creation. Max and Vik explore why privacy should be a default, how Monero’s out‑of‑the‑box protections compare with Bitcoin’s more complex privacy tooling, and why a multi‑coin world empowers users rather than divides them. Max and Vik also dig into the rapid rise of AI: how it’s reshaping software development, enabling non‑coders to build real tools, and what it might mean for self‑custody and user experience in the months ahead.

Vik reflects on the growing global demand for financial privacy and access—especially via stablecoins as on‑ramps—while emphasising real‑world utility as the backbone of value. He recounts Cake’s experimental culture (silent payments, PayJoin v2, Lightning via Spark) and the team’s willingness to learn in public. Max and Vik wrap on why decentralised money and local/secure AI can help people everywhere earn, spend, and build without permission, and why he’s more optimistic today than he was a few years ago about privacy tech gaining mainstream traction.

HELP GET SAMOURAI A PARDON

SIGN THE PETITION ----> https://www.change.org/p/stand-up-for-freedom-pardon-the-innocent-coders-jailed-for-building-privacy-tools DONATE TO THE FAMILIES ----> https://www.givesendgo.com/billandkeonne SUPPORT ON SOCIAL MEDIA ---> https://billandkeonne.org/

https://fountain.fm/episode/UyOnnuTkc4QSb129ZLkP

Substr progress update: better media posts, smoother sharing, and cleaner mobile UX

Wanted to share another Substr update after a new round of polishing and fixes.

This pass was mostly focused on making the app feel better on mobile, cleaning up media posts, and smoothing out a few rough edges in sharing and feed behavior.

Here’s what changed recently:

• Improved media posts so images, videos, link previews, and polls now feel much better inside cards, especially on mobile.
• Media can now stretch edge-to-edge inside post cards on mobile instead of feeling boxed in.
• Portrait images now stay fully visible instead of being awkwardly cropped.
• Clicking an image now opens a proper lightbox viewer with a cleaner fullscreen preview.
• The image viewer now locks the background, adds blur, and feels much more intentional.
• Share previews inside the share modal are more reliable now and no longer show a broken image when a post has no media.
• Media-post text handling is cleaner now, with better previews for longer captions and a nicer expand/collapse flow.
• Fixed duplicate post rendering issues in some community feeds.
• Relay publishing was also improved a bit by tightening how publish success is tracked and expanding relay coverage.

A lot of this was again less about flashy new features and more about making the experience feel more solid, readable, and less janky in daily use.

Thanks again to everyone who keeps testing Substr, sharing bugs, and pointing out rough spots. That feedback keeps helping a lot and directly shapes what gets fixed next.

If anyone has more ideas, feedback, or things that feel off, always happy to hear it.

GM everyone 🤘 https://image.nostr.build/f2d6b8d3146f4fc989a51b712afb2b105d75a9677a477ce4d86850154a418dcb.jpg

How Substr Polls Work Across Nostr Clients

We built polls as Nostr-native events, not as a closed backend feature.The poll itself is a normal Nostr post with extra tags like poll_option, poll_results, and poll_closes_at. Votes are separate Nostr events that reference the poll and include a poll_vote tag.

That means other clients can still receive and store the poll and vote data through relays. The only difference is rendering: clients that support these poll tags can show a real poll UI, while others will just show them as regular posts.

I’ve been busy tightening up Substr after some recent feedback, and today we shipped a solid round of improvements.

We cleaned up loading states across the app so pages feel more consistent and less jarring, especially on community and thread views. We also fixed a frustrating issue where thread pages could sometimes open at an offset instead of loading cleanly from the top.

One of the biggest improvements is how engagement data now loads. Posts no longer show misleading 0 counts for replies, likes, or zaps before relay data arrives. Instead, the post loads first and the real engagement numbers fill in once they’re actually available, which makes the whole experience feel a lot more honest and polished.

We also made some under-the-hood improvements to reduce unnecessary duplicate fetching on thread and community pages, helping Substr feel cleaner and more efficient as we keep building.

More polish is on the way. Appreciate the feedback, it’s helping shape the product in all the right ways.

Is spam a technical problem or a social one?

How would you approach it on an open network like Nostr?

Next goals for Substr

• Create Substr relays
• Add data host for images & videos
• Host upgrade for better performance

Substr is still early, but it is no longer just an idea. The community layer, posting system, personal utility, theming, moderation flow, and mobile experience are all being actively shaped into something people can actually use.

https://substr.network/

After many discussions about dark mode vs light mode, accent colors, and different styles, I decided to make everything customizable to your own preferences.

You can use presets or fine-tune everything independently, including things like border radius.

The soft launch went reasonably well.

The main feedback so far is that usernames and profile pictures don’t always load correctly.

I’m hoping to get more input, ideas and suggestions are very welcome, especially since only a handful of people have checked it out so far.

Soft launch. Still building. Substr.

Trying something new with communities.

substr.network

What makes a community actually worth coming back to?

Content? People? Structure? Features?

Or something else?

https://substr.network/

There are already a lot of great Nostr-based social apps out there.

Most of them focus on quick thoughts, short posts, and real-time expression — and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Substr isn’t trying to compete in that space. We’re trying to build something different: more structured, more content-driven, and easier to explore over time.

Substr is now in soft launch. 🔥 An attempt to bring back open, community-driven spaces — built on Nostr.

It’s early, and we need real users to test, explore, and shape what this becomes.

Next steps: relays, media uploads, infrastructure upgrades.

Join us 👇

https://substr.network/

What’s your biggest privacy concern right now?

Feels like privacy is slowly fading in every direction. If you had to pick one real concern, what would it be?

Collection of Nostr tools & Apps

nostrapps.com provides a great way to find new tools and apps on Nostr. For builders, you also can submit your own project!

https://nostrapps.com/##all