does anyone derive value from a displayable follow count? 

if so, what does it do for you?

For myself: I put it on my resume (it shows I’ve grown an audience)

For others: it shows they’ve likely been here a while (early adopter -> open minded & experimental)

Interested in social infrastructure (URL & IRL) | slowly building /firstdraft | markfishman.xyz

Hey mark! Cool! So some form of signalling in both cases? 

Let’s say your follower count went away right now, do you think you could you still demonstrate those outcomes to those 2 audiences?

I’m wondering just how important having that number is to people.

Oh yeah it’s definitely signaling. I think people would find other ways to signal if there were no follower counts

I don’t think follower counts are necessarily the best signal for quality / relevance though

For sure — what’s a good signal for quality?

for me, it’s really a vibe, a feeling that this person is worth opening my attention to

That would be sick, “here’s who you might vibe with because of X, Y, and Z reason”

I think mutual followers (# and specific people) is a good one

Agree with vibes but hard to make legible at a glance

I’d happily welcome some AI signaling on someone’s profile that shows me that person’s personality / topics of interest / etc.