There was some merit in saying "growth shouldn't be your goal" when the #fediverse was much smaller, but the way that's morphed into "don't self-promote and just be a person" is simply not how people use social media. Creators are the backbone of EVERY social network, and it must be the case that people can try to use their skills to make a living here.
It is, in fact, virtuous to try to escape the cycle of letting rich corps take your work. We should help those people, not push them away.
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I think this is also important for minority groups too,l they can share their culture, arts etc in a way thet reaches far more people as there is no algorithm here to decide who sees your content.
