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 like, everyone keeps saying that, and i never knew birdsite so i've never seen the possibly destructiveness. but, like, if i'm going to post, i wanna make sure i'm reaching people. irl we get feedback based on seeing who's listening, and how they look when reacting. i want the equivalent on the internet. i want follower counts

@cosine There's nothing wrong with you having *your own* follower count and seeing likes to your posts come in and etc. We should have that!

The danger is in having a central place of authority where you can *compare* your follower count to others. That's where you enter into all the problems of popularity contest / differentiation-centric toxicity.