a general or for you channel. i feel restricted by channels sometimes because my cast doesnt really fit anywhere, and if i post in home no one will see it.

This is not true. If you cast outside of a channel, it just goes to your followers.

Casting in a channel gives it the potential to be seen by more people.

As a newer user in the past few months who has only recently become more active, I can appreciate what @zkp is saying. I have zero social score and farcaster doesn’t show my cast to anyone. If I cast outside of a channel it will get zero engagement. Might look at balancing bot filters against new actual users just trying to use the platform.