It's worth testing to see if generating key is an important step or not. I think Damus and Primal both have you save your key. Snort on the other hand doesn't mention the key (by design). Just need to measure the funnel entrance to exit (got to the feed) for each app to see which is more effective. My guess is they are roughly the same.
As far as retention goes, I don't think knowing about keys impacts it, but content does significantly. If you sign up to something and see things you are not interested in, what's the point of sticking around? This is the super important discovery step we need to solve. Right now you just see some bitcoiners and in some cases trending people being recommended, but people often dont follow anyone, they just skip. Some clients offer hashtag following, but again, some people just skip all of that. I think this is why Twitter forced people to pick some topics so they could show a decent starting feed.
It's usually a balance to strive for. Make it too difficult and people don't sign up. Make it too easy and they get in and leave. You have to have some skin in the game so to speak to stick around. But all of that can also be for nothing if there are no strong network effects.
You should definitely be able to choose what kind of content you see, I think that would make the apps more sticky and personalized. I don't know if relay selection is necessary, would be nice to test with and without.
So far most of the feedback we have is that it's too confusing. People get hung up on keys, and not sure what they are doing once they are in the app. Some don't recommend hashtags and if you skip following people in onboarding you have a blank feed.
1. Underexpose images. Blown out photos are harder to correct.
2. Simplicity is best - remove distractions from the frame and focus on the subject
3. Use negative space - example: more sky in photo as opposed to equal ground / sky
4. Don’t take all photos at eye level. Try different levels (example: bring camera closer to a long straight road)
5. Use rule of thirds (don’t just position everything in the center (align to grid intersections) you can enable this in camera settings
6. (This one is from me) think about where you’ll share the image. For example, Damus does edge to edge vertical well on mobile so if you are going to share on a mobile client - take vertical photos.
7. Zoom in with telephoto lens on patterns.
8. (From me) take many photos instead of just one. Better chance of finding the right moment.
9. Edit in Lightroom to play with shadows, white balance and highlights.
10. Don’t face at the light source (eg. selfie in front of a window - turn around to let the window light hit your face)
If you’re a photographer; let me know if I messed anything up or missed some of your favorite tips!
Maybe they have stats to see how long some people are inactive and that might inform the time window during which they want to ensure those people don’t get confused.