Thesis: a web of trust based social network wouldn't have a reliable "global" follower / like / etc count -- it would only be the ones you've seen -- and this would be a feature.
Some of the most toxic behavior on Twitter comes from people trying to become "the most popular person in the room", which also leads to a lot of social messaging which isn't about being constructive, but differentiating yourself in a way that makes you look better than others.
@cwebber I've occasionally thought that a social medium would be better if there were _NO_ means of effort-free interaction, like favoriting or reposting, but it's been pointed out to me that these mechanisms offer a way for people who don't feel up to a verbal response nevertheless to be able to interact and express sympathy
but I do think it'd be better if favoriting were essentially private (i.e. the user you favorited saw that you did it, but nobody else could)
@kara having a "like" button also dramatically reduces noise. The reason GitHub added the emoji response things was to reduce the amount of noise in issues of people saying "yes please" and "+1"
@cwebber ah, that's a good point. a strong argument!