I had no inspiration to write a proper post for the past 2-3 days, my imagination can get blurry sometimes, and just writing a technical post might not be for everyone's taste. So I was jumping from tab to tab until my eyes got fixed on this:
To me, who I never wrote much in the past before joining ListNerds, and also not having a big stake or voting power, having 135 followers means something. Also, I'm not using shitFBook so no friends or followers there, I don't post on Ytube so no followers there, I only started using Twitter because of Hive I could say, I hope you understand what I'm trying to explain. I have no followers on other platforms because I'm almost not using them and I don't create any content there.
But then, my attention got caught by another number, people who I am following on Hive. Wow, 304 people? WHO are they, and why do I follow them? Do they ever interact with me, are they still using Hive? I had to take at least a quick look at who's who. It took me less than 5 minutes to open about 65 tabs on people/users who I want to check.
Don't bash me on the number of tabs, this machine can handle a lot more tabs, at one point I opened more than 150 flashy tabs and it was still working without any hiccups.
Back to where I was, checking who's who and WHY I was following. It could be that I've been on this platform since 2019, most times not really active until this year, and probably back then if I received a vote or comment from someone I would follow them without thinking too much. I'll check some more right now:
I was following people who did not post a thing in 3 months or even 2 years.
I was following people who only posted SHIT.
I was following people who maybe one year ago replied to one of my comments, but then never again.
I was following some account who never posted a thing, what in the hell was wrong or is with me? :)))
I was following people who kept voting for some of my shit posts, but they never commented or posted anything in the past 12 to 24 or more months.
I was following people who only interacted with me if I was the initiator, but NEVER the other way around. ☛ THIS is important to me. It's nice of you if you sometimes reply to my comments, but if you NEVER do it on my own content, no matter if good or bad, I need no arselicking-pardon my English, if I'm doing something wrong better tell me about it. So if you are that kind of person, then maybe is better for both of us to split ways as nothing good will come out of it in long term.
Even if you vote for some of my posts and I do the same with yours, if we don't interact at all at least through some comments from time to time, it CAN'T be healthy, for us both and the entire ecosystem.
Another example, I was following this lady here because from time to time she is voting on my posts, but she did NOT post anything in TWO years. And I did try to engage and wrote a comment on her latest 2yo post, but never got a reply back. Just by looking at her profile, she would have been a perfect candidate for the #IamAlive community. I feel a touch sad now.
This was just a quick clean up, it took me less than an hour(because I was writing this at the same time), but do believe me, another one is coming. My main goal here is to follow people who I can interact with or at least who can bring some value into my Hive life, otherwise what's the point?
So, WHO do you follow? Does it matter? Do you care or do you like that big number showing on your profile? People come and go, don't get stuck on something from the past that has no relevance in the present, life goes on.
PS: I was following xxx accounts that never posted anything. I was also following xxx accounts than did not post a thing in 4 years. That's what happens when you don't care that much, but starting from today, believe that I will!
EDIT before posting: After going through all those 65 tabs/users, I ended up opening another 48. If you go and have a look at who you are following, you'll be amazed at how UNTRUE that number is, but that only if you care! You could say that if you follow someone but they haven't posted anything in months or years, that would not affect your feed, but it will affect your general perception or worse, others' perception about you.
THIS IS ALSO IMPORTANT! If I unfollowed someone who did not deserve it, you better hit me with a shovel and do it now!(red or blue, your choosing)
Images from https://pixabay.com/
I'll end this here by tagging @bradleyarrow for always being helpful and why not @taskmaster4450 who I can see has a healthy number of people that he follows, maybe he can share more with us, I don't remember seeing a post of this kind from him.