[Asturaz]

It does not work like that, the gateway will not be able to show anything, and if you would like to go through a gateway you would have to share your secret key with that Gateway, which means full control of your log.

The first time you use Secure Scuttlebutt will be boring because it will be an empty town, you will not have anything and you will not see anyone's feed either. The magic happens when you start following someone or you are at the same network as someone else your client start downloading the log of your friend and the log your friend have stored from their friends, and the feed is filled with information. You will even be able to view your social network offline and you will even be able to do comments in other peoples feeds and it will sync when you are online again.

Most likley you will not be on the same network as anyone else which means you will not be able to see anyone so the solution is to walk in to a pub where almost everyone in the town are

You will find a list of public pubs which can be used in Patchwork to access other feeds https://github.com/ssbc/scuttlebot/wiki/Pub-Servers

What the Pub solve is that you can download a bunch of peoples feed without they and their friends have to be online.

[DividableMiddle]

Although I understand the purpose of a new user having no data on first use I do not agree with it. Using a platform for the first time can be foreign and it eases the mind of the user if they can see what it would look like day-to-day. Maybe just have some test material and a very obvious button to wipe it clean when they are ready?

[masukomi]

If you follow the instructions in the Getting Started Guide [1] it will not be "an empty town". That would be a pretty crappy getting-started experience.

Just connect to a pub and you'll find tons of content.

I would also recommend AGAINST ever doing `rm -rf ~/.ssb` as one commenter suggested. That will wipe out your keys, and thus your identity, and you'll never be able to post anything as that identity again (unless you backed up your secret file or connected it to another identity (advanced usage)).

[1]: https://www.scuttlebutt.nz/getting-started.html

[whimful]

good idea, #somebodyshould implement it!

If you're familiar with terminal, you can start the app, connect to a pub, have a play, and when you want to reset _everything_ including your identity, run :

``` rm -rf ~/.ssb ```

(this assumes mac / linux) Next time you start Patchwork a new identity will be made and you'll be starting from fresh