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Palash Bauri πŸ‘»
Palash Bauri πŸ‘»

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Why Dev.to Followers/Following Count isn't Publicly Visible?

I'm thinking for a long time , what might be the reason, that Dev.to followers/following Count is not visible to public (or atleast opt-in option to make it public).

Top comments (8)

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sadarshannaiynar profile image
Adarsh • Edited

I just feel that platform would get biased. People have a general tendency to read posts by authors who have high follower count. In turn these posts will become one of the most read articles. But with current scenario the judgement is done based purely on the content and every one gets a kind of equal opportunity to express themselves.

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bauripalash profile image
Palash Bauri πŸ‘»

Well Said, Good Point πŸ‘
I never thought that way!

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

We've adopted the policy of downplaying aggregated internet-point type stuff. You can know your own follow count, but we try to not lift folks up on too much of a pedestal based on stuff like follow counts.

Follow counts are a sort of social media anxiety drivers we'd like to limit. Perhaps in the future this could change, but for now this remains the policy.

By the way, great full profile!

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vintharas profile image
Jaime GonzΓ‘lez GarcΓ­a

I love that!!!!

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rdumais profile image
Ryan

I use Dev.to because that information isn't available publically. Contrary to popular belief, it is not necessary for a social or discussion platform.

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metaphilosophy profile image
Seremonia • Edited

Why is the Number of Followers on Dev.to Not Publicly Displayed (Hidden)?

I have increasing respect for this community because, while many communities attempt to elevate the quality of their content by allowing others to rate it through Upvotes (Likes) πŸ‘ or Downvotes (Dislikes) πŸ‘Ž, it often leads to unfair judgment without any meaningful comments.

Furthermore, these communities often aid in ranking by displaying the number of followers.

However, Dev.to ignores all these metrics by not providing a "Like/Dislike" feature and not displaying the number of followers, so readers are not influenced by accounts with many followers, ALLOWING THEM TO FOCUS MORE ON THE CONTENT.

Although each account can see how many followers they have to gauge who aligns with the writer.

πŸ”° This ensures that users are evaluated neutrally, so they truly follow based on independent agreement and not due to the influence of follower counts or upvotes (likes).

Thus, we can approach the belief that followers truly understand what we write and also agree with what we have written.

A wise policy indeed πŸ‘

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juancpgo profile image
Juan

I wish I could at least see a list of who I'm following… I'm getting a lot of irrelevant (to me) posts in my timeline, so I'd like to "clean up" who I'm following so as to get content that matters to me.

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ashraful profile image
Mohamad Ashraful Islam

My mind was burning me for the answer. Finally, I understand the logic behind this. Thanks