So. I tend to jump into replies. I try not to be a pill, generally, but I’m so full of myself I can’t always tell. (And, tbh, there is a certain amount of shitposting, because some of y’all… smh.)

Here’s the thing, though. I (currently) have ~350 followers on Mastodon, a good chunk of them bots and monitors and hucksters and dead accounts, I think.

Other folks have 2.8k, 13k, 85k (ok, I stopped sampling here) followers. I’m guessing follower count is an exponential distribution. If I want my toots heard (and I do, for most of them), I’m going to be in the reply wake along with the rest of the seagulls and fish.

Every post by a “personality” is its very own nanoscopic village green, automatically filtered (roughly) by folks who are actually interested.

I get you might not want random strangers jumping into your replies, but I think them’s the dynamics. I’m not necessarily replying to YOU, just the more general audience that are your followers and boosters. (Ok, well, sometimes you.)

You can already post to local or just your followers (and, for all I know, you already are), and I guess at some point, Mastodon will implement a limit on who can reply. There’s already a limit on who can quote-toot.

So, that’s all. Just a little post here. A thought I’ve been wanting to get out for a while.