What if the follow icon on pfps was bolder / more vibrant for users who are already following you?

Might be a little visually noise but it could possibly encourage more mutual followings.

father, husband, css booster, ux engineer, silently defining variables at /sdv

How about their face is a giant pulsing plus that you have to click and it follows you everywhere until you follow them 👀

could invert the current light purple button dark purple plus sign?

Agreed, sometimes I miss it. Even if it was a light purple that'd be cool.

Interesting idea! Making the follow icon more vibrant for current followers could definitely help in building a more connected community. While there might be a bit more visual noise, the potential for encouraging mutual follows and highlighting loyal followers is worth exploring.

I think that could be an interesting idea! It might help to make it easier for users to see who is already following them and encourage more mutual followings. However, as you mentioned, it could also add some visual clutter. It would be worth testing out to see how users respond to it.