Birdsite refugees may have to learn protocols of symmetric follow of friends, or else they may get muted in Mastodon.
In 2008, the contrast with asymmetric follow was surfaced. #BenjaminEllis wrote:
> Asymmetric follow is a hack in social software to enable ‘relationships’ to scale. It is broadcast, not conversation”
@timoreilly responded:
> Not so. I follow 400; am followed by 16,000. But I respond to lots of people (like you) who I didn’t know before. Not just broadcast.”
"Asymmetrical Follow: A Core Web 2.0 Pattern" | James Governor | Dec. 8, 2008 at https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/2008/12/05/assymetrical-follow-a-core-web-20-pattern/
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I have over 27K followers, I follow less than 500 (and usually trim it down to keep it closer to 300). I too try to respond to **everyone** , but I do miss a lot and often just due to the numbers messages get lost in the influx. But I do try.
Thing is, I dont think i need to make what I say private just to avoid the asymetry, that seems silly too.. Besides if anyone engages me and is productive I will often follow anyway...
