So.
I just got followed by a bunch of accounts without filled-out profiles or any toots sent. There isn't any way for me to know y'all aren't spam accounts.
Here's the deal. If you're real people:
Welcome to Mastodon, glad to have you! Fill out your profile (including a picture, ideally!) and send an #introduction post. I know the urge to lurk, but I really recommend getting involved!
I'm gonna remove followers that haven't either filled out a profile or posted something within a day or two.
@benjaminhollon get involved or else 🙃
@saki I don't like having to do it, but there's been about 15 follows in the last half hour. Most of them don't have profile pics, more than a couple words of bio, or anything sent.
I don't want to be followed by bots if I can help it. That may have some false positives, so I'm giving people a chance to avoid that. 🤷
@benjaminhollon if I have to guess it'll be all false positives. People are trying this place out post-it Twitter and not everyone wants to be not-a-lurker
@saki Fair enough. Honestly, though, just having a profile description that's more than two words and a single toot is enough for me. So many of them seem to have signed up and immediately followed 20+ people. It's a low bar to ask for.
Also, realistically, I don't particularly care to have followers that aren't going to engage at any level. 🤷
@benjaminhollon why the hostility towards lurkers though? They're a net positive, and kinda crucial for any fledgling social network to succeed anyway
@saki Again, all I need is a single post. If they decide they don't like putting themselves out there after that post, I'm fine with them returning to lurking. 😄
@saki It's not hostility, but the reason I love Fosstodon is that it's a far less passive network than most social platforms you'll see. People follow each other so they can interact, not just to read everything they've posted.
I'm not angry at people who don't currently prefer that, I'd just like to have them make a small step to try it out.
Ultimately, I'm providing value by posting things here, and I like it for people to at least show the willingness to provide me that value in return.