2026-10-15 14:32 UTC
Replies (10)
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@grunfink@comam.es 2026-10-17 06:40
Big no to both. Some Fediverse implementations, like the one I develop (#snac), does not publish follower nor following counts by default.
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@zompetto@mastodon.art 2026-10-15 14:40
@altlazybear@mas.to literally checked my follower count for the first time the other day when I saw the meme image with a pin with the phrase "I have several dozen followers on the fediverse"
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@Cassandra_Complex@beige.party 2026-10-15 14:49
@altlazybear@mas.to Generally, my only red flag is if a person never posts anything at all thay sounds like a person. If it's all boosts or articles, I have to be interested in what they're covering.
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@catmisgivings@stranger.social 2026-10-15 14:53
@altlazybear@mas.to cannot answer without revealing ingredient of the secret sauce I use to approve follow requests
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@redjives@todon.eu 2026-10-15 15:03
@altlazybear@mas.to I don't think trustworthy is an applicable dimension for me most of the time. (Factual information should come with a source and/or I actually know the person and their credentials.) I tend to stay away from accounts with >~1k followed because it starts to feel like commenting on a broadcast medium and not human interaction at that point. And I try to give accounts with <~10 followers the benefit of the doubt but will be quicker to disengage from them if it's not feeling fullfiling. What I do often glance at, however, is the ratio of replies to boosts to original toots; phanpy helpfully displays this. I'm looking for thoughtful conversation. For that a balance of toots and replies with a sprinkle of boosts seems to often be a good sign.
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@ohmu@social.seattle.wa.us 2026-10-15 15:21
@altlazybear@mas.to I would not use the word trustworthy. It's more like "real". Yes, I am suspicious that an account with very few followers might be a sock puppet or a dav1d account created for harassment unless the profile says they only accept follows by request.
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@Lkdc@dmv.community 2026-10-15 16:03
@altlazybear@mas.to What matters the most to me is engagement with people asking questions. If you wrote that Medicine X results in a 30% reduction in Disease Y, and you didn't respond to follow-up questions, I won't trust you as a source of information. However, if someone asked you for a source and you responded with a link to a medical journal article, I'll trust you more.
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@silver_buttercat@kolektiva.social 2026-10-15 16:13
@altlazybear@mas.to I look at how long someone has been on the Fediverse to screen for possible AI/bot accounts. Then I read over what they actually post to determine their politics, attitudes, "likes vs dislikes" and such long before I try to judge their trustworthiness. I try to look at their followers' replies too if I can.
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@wulfric@beige.party 2026-10-15 16:18
@altlazybear@mas.to I usually trust my gut. Who is following someone is usually a better gauge than a number of followers. I also look at things like age of account, how many people they are following, and some of their general engagement (Posts and replies).
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@argv_minus_one@mastodon.sdf.org 2026-10-15 16:46
@altlazybear@mas.to When I need to decide whether to follow someone, I mainly look at what they've posted recently. Is it interesting? Is it problematic? When I need to decide whether to trust someone, then I'm looking at their ideology, affiliations, and past interactions with me (if any). Low follower count doesn't mean much to me absent other information, because there are a lot of potential reasons for a follower count to be low, some of which are perfectly innocent.