The Follower Problem

You're not going to like it.

“In a very apt metaphor, if you are having supper with fine meats, and you sing it so loud. Don’t be surprised when Wolf comes around.. Wolf will watch your camp, for seasons, if needed…”

This article was written with substack in mind, however, I'm certain it would prove to be true on any social network(with a few exceptions).

On Substack, I constantly see posts like these:

- Why are there so many AI posts?

- Substack is overflowing with threats to women. Physical, direct threats, some obvious bluffs, but misogyny all the way.

- All I ever see any more are posts saying they have the only real way to make money here!

You should be seeing a pattern here.

So, I thought about it a bit, because when I see this sort of complaint often. And they are very valid. However, if someone says it's all AI posts, I don't see any. No matter which complaint I see, when i look around, and not a single post around .

First, I said, it's a fluke. Ignore it.

Then, I said, "okay, why do I never see these things? I see so many complain, I should have at least a few days like that, right? I asked a few of my friends if they’d ever encountered to things like this, and the both said, “once or twice. Never flooding my feed or anything though.”

So I started engaging people posting this kind of complaint often. When the next post came up it was about 'seeing so many AI posts.' I've never seen more than a few AI posts, in over a year. So, I replied

"What do you mean? What kind of post is it? What makes you think it's AI?"

I got a response a few minutes later that was like "what? Really? Everyone doesn't get this many? A link to an actual bot account was sited. So, I asked how often, how long, etc etc.

This was true for each topic I investigated. Never had the content showed in my feeds, or replies, or whatever. One person told me it was comments that were 'too fast' from people with no posts, and blank profile.

So I did this until I was convinced that some people really got hit with outrageous amounts of posts and misogyny, racism, Nazis, hatemongering, bigotry, serious disturbing and detailed threats, mostly to women, 'AI Posts(Never got a clear idea in this one, but it seemed to be more media outlet related than actual AI accounts, mostly).

I turned to my friends. Message 5-10 users I knew well enough to believe their responses. Unfortunately, most of the women had gotten the misogyny flood of posts at one time or another.

Not one of those I asked thought they'd seen posts by AIs I'm certain some get through we just jump it mentally, like a reflex. No one ever said they'd felt like AI posts were everywhere on their feeds.

Money scams! We'd all seen these, but had only had rare encounters with them after the first month or two. There are tons of these on every site where money can be made. We'll talk about appropriate actions that actually fix it.

Hatespeech, usually in the Conservative flavor of crazy had been seen by all. Hatespeech and racist content had been seen by most everyone, but rarely.

So, the evidence was there. But when put to a group of daily users, most had very little trouble. I knew almost immediately what the difference was, and the figures agreed.

You see, I'm 43 years old. I joined Twitter in 2006, and used it most every day until Elon Musk bought it. I dropped my account immediately. I don't care for people who could improve this world in tangible, non-big money long research bs. Just by donating to homeless shelters, and putting up solar panels. Fuck Elon.

Anyway, Twitter At first had like 1500 users, like 20 celebrities. Maybe 15 "brand" accounts. No ads. Point being that it was just a big chat room. Twitter didn't blow up until about 5 years later.

At that time, people started doing "Follow Fridays" and "Follow for Follow. I always follow back."

First, let me say that this time of numbers game helps no one and it kills the users you actually like. Conversation. Interaction. I don't care how many people pretend to read your blog if you've never had a conversation with them.

I've been arguing that point for years. I don't follow celebrities, politicians, companies, etc. Except a rare few I befriended. lol.

In 17 years on Twitter, I had 2500 followers. I followed about 1800. I stuck to my interaction philosophy. Occasionally told people it wasn't healthy, but my account was awesome. I knew those people so well.. in the late 2010s I had to have emergency surgery. My 2000 friends from Twitter completely took care of everything until I was back in my feet. I'm talking about full hospital and surgery costs, meds. Food, rent for 5 months, my car payment. EVERYTHING.

I didn't use Go Fund Me, or anything else. They sent it all to my PayPal. What I'm saying here is that you shouldn't just follow someone who followed you. I get suspicious if I ever get a follower I haven't interacted with.

I have a rule. Interaction. If we have a few positive interactions, seem to share interests, I'll follow. Don't care if they follow back. If I'm suddenly getting new followers, I don't follow any of them back until I've read their bio, seen things they post, etc.

in 2006, Influencers wouldn't be an actual job for another 10+ years.

When the internet was young, we were constantly being told not to use real names or dates. Now, with more security than ever, people don't think about security on that level anymore.

I don't start an account on a newsletter site, or a magazine site, or a site for artists thinking it'll be making me money very soon. Shit. I go in, do my thing, and there are always people with whom I share an instant rapport.

One of the biggest spam attraction posts I see on Substack is the "Hi, I'm looking to meet this kind of writer, people who like pop music, etc etc."

That's where you get these vacant, or soon to be vacant, hangers-on. Avoid any time of post like that.

If you post good content, that interests you, people who like that will find you. Of those I asked about in this survey, 2 of the men were musicians. They don't hustle for followers. One does a weekly meet and greet type follow thing. But everyone there is vetted by him. So, if they also interact with a public chat(bots don't seem to be able to make the chats on Substack🤷).

Everyone who comes in also posts about themselves. So there's no blind follows.

There are three types of users who should follow for follow blindly. Wanna-be influencers who'll give up after 3 months of not posting, People who think that's a great way to start a business account, and people who've never used a social site.

There's one now thing, and you should take it absolutely seriously. If you see things you don't like or are abusive in your feed, mute, block, or report. These functions are absolutely essential to keeping and network your network.

Break the cycle.

I know a lot of people reading this are all over calling BS for a long while now. You know what? I don't care. I didn't write this to argue with nerds that are so immature they think they can live off YouTube videos in 6 months. I write this because a lot of good people get taken advantage of on social sites. And that's how.

Vet your followers, and those you follow. Use the Interaction Standard. Adjust the numbers, but it's the best way to test for spam or bots. Mute people who are assholes. Block and report every single post from an account that threatens you or breaks ToS. They aren't people you want as friends.

Here's the Con. People reading are like, why? How could they profit like this? Easy. It's called BIG NUMBERS.

The follow as many users as possible as fast as possible and immediately record all data from all those accounts. When you let them stick around, or worse, ignore abuse, they can gain very important data like people use on locks to money.

A bot can create an account, put a bikini girl pic and name o. The profile and follow several hundreds if not into the thousands way sooner than they get reported enough times to get banned.

That's why I encourage you all to use these tools that have always been there. You e been told blocking someone is violating the first amendment. That's a lie. You don't have to listen to any jackass say whatever he wants.

You have the freedom to walk away. You get choices. So do these not programmers. So do the Nazi trash. If we don't want to see it, BLOCK.

Hey everybody.

I'm Jack Lhasa

You Are Amazing.

👊🏼👊🏼Solidarity👊🏼👊🏼

[Https://ko-fi.com/jacklhasa](https://ko-fi.com/jacklhasa)