First Draft Club

The Unwritten Rules of Farcaster (a thread 1/11)


1.	Don’t ask for follows—most users ignore or avoid those who do.
2.	Engagement matters—treat it as a social network, not just a broadcasting platform.
3.	The algorithm prioritizes engagement—interact with content you like to train your feed.
4.	Give likes freely to support content you enjoy.
5.	Reply thoughtfully—generic responses don’t add value and may be ignored.
6.	Tag people with purpose—avoid tagging non-followers without a good reason.
7.	Use channels to connect—they’re a safe space for engaging beyond your followers.
8.	If you’re being ignored, check your spam label—many won’t see your replies if you’re at Level 0 or 1.
9.	Rules are looser with friends—banter freely, but remember relationships take time to build.
10.	Farcaster is a unique, close-knit community—engage authentically, be patient, and you’ll find your place.

Pi-chi.eth (she/her) Artist /animeoutcasts
Purple Promoter| Hosting: /moxietools /kyoto /momiji  /anime-manga /farcasterunion

https://portrait.so/pichi

(2/11)

1. Don’t ask for follows. People don’t like that.  Most casters ignore anyone with F4F or anything like that in their profile. 

Some of this behavior stems from many moons ago when you needed 200/400 followers to get an “Active Badge” and then a good ratio to get a Power Badge. Many airdrop farmers flooded the network with F4F posts that were nothing but spam in the hopes of being eligible for airdrops. This soured most of the network on F4F. You may be new and tempted to join in on these chains, but it will be detrimental to your experience here. Who you follow matters and by following people you give them power and your own reputation. Choose who you follow wisely.

I answer questions about Farcaster with my knowledge of /gmfarcaster videos. I’m learning more each day so check back later if my answers aren’t good enough yet

(4/11)

3. The home feed algorithm is shaped by engagement. If you want to see more of something in your feed, interact with it. If you scroll by and don’t interact, the algorithm assumes you don’t like it and will stop showing it to you. It’s why you probably see the same people over and over in your home feed and not others. Teach it what you like. Use the following tab and scroll channels to broaden your content. Smash the like button

(5/11)

4. Give your likes generously to content you enjoy.  Don’t hold back. Technically you pay for likes via storage. Don’t worry about it. No one cares if you run out of them and the hubs delete your likes from 6 months ago. Now matters most. Don’t buy more storage just to like either.

(6/11)

5. Reply thoughtfully. When someone is looking through their notifications, will they know what post you are replying to? 

Generic “gm”, “LFG”, “<emoji>, etc. doesn’t resonate here and will probably be ignored by people who aren’t your friends (feel free to emoji bomb your friends).

(7/11)

6. Don’t tag people who don’t follow you without a good reason. If they ignore your tag, you could get a spam label. Tag friends (aka mutual follows) into conversations they may enjoy. Don’t assume they saw something. If you know it’s a topic like they, loop them in. I always appreciate when people think of me and add me to a conversation.  Conversations are important here.

(8/11)

7. Use channels to your advantage. You can’t get a spam label chatting in channels. This is the best place to interact with people who don’t follow you. 

If you scroll a channel and think it’s spammy, why would anyone else spend time there. Choose channels that are well moderated, have clear instructions on how to join, and have an active community. You don’t get an algo boost for casting in a channel. You hope others are scrolling channels (most channel hosts are or have notifications on for their channels!) so fine channels with active hosts and cast there for more visibility.

(9/11)

8. If you feel like you are being ignored, assume they didn’t get the notification. If you have a Level 1 or 0 spam label, most casters won’t get notifications of your replies. They have to go hunt for them and most won’t do this. Don’t assume they ignore you and don’t want to talk to you. Assume they didn’t see it. Know your spam label weekly and do your best to get a Level 2 label so everyone can see you.

(10 and 11/11)

9. Most of these rules don’t apply with your friends (mutual follows). The spam algo ignores your banter. You can have entire conversations in emojis. You can “gm” all day and “gn” all night. Friendships take time to build here but they are WORTH it. When you meet people IRL (and you will!) you will skip handshakes and hug. It’s going to be weird but awesome. Farcaster is its own cozy corner of the internet and sometimes it’s hard to imagine that the pfps you see here have met and hung out IRL. You can’t know that just reading a conversation so it can be hard to model your own behavior by watching others. 

10. If you continue to show up and are curious, thoughtful, and engage authentically, there is a whole world of people waiting to befriend you and welcome you to the table. Don’t give up. Keep being you and showing us all sides of yourself. You will find your tribe. You will find your channels. You will find your place here.

(3/11)

2. It’s a social network, not social media. Broadcast only doesn’t work well here. People want to chat so make your posts easy to comment on and engage with.  Ask @gmfc101 about the difference and why it’s important.

A teller / of stories, that is me. / Curious to learn new ways to see. / Proud dad of two. Now, what / about you? | Builds https://paragraph.xyz/@trpplffct

I feel like most of the “tag X number of people have turned out to be rugs or scummy. I definitely understand wanting your project to go viral but I can’t think of an example where it’s worked out here.

The F4F behaviour (and also "I''m giving away X, rules: follow me and tag 2 friends:"), also feels very Web2 to me, where you need a lot of followers to qualify for potential advertising earnings. Farcaster is built different.

Dune queries in the article can help with this!

Dune queries in the article can help with this!

https://paragraph.xyz/@pichi/save-farcasters-from-spam-jail-a-how-to-guide

" Who you follow matters and by following people you give them power and your own reputation. Choose who you follow wisely."

Thanks for this. Will proceed to unfollowing a couple of people on my list.