I have seen this talked about a few different times recently. The alliance was doing a purge of inactive members, @jedau was trying to trim the fat on his list with his Year-End Unfollowing Extravaganza!, so I took a look at my list and realized that there was some junk in the back of the closet that needed to be sent to the Goodwill.
Lately I jump over to check out my feed and it is filled with a lot of uninteresting filler. I struggle to find content that I want to read and often end up checking out new tags instead of supporting my favourite steem friends. I often miss out on great posts because they get lost in the amazon jungle which is my feed. I really would like to make my feed useful to me again. think that it would be great if Steemit was able to organize your following into "groups" such as Family, Crypto, Core friends, ect... but since they dont, I think it is time to trim the fat.
I took a fair bit of time to think about how I was going to tackle this task. I was following over 100 users and thought that most of them must have had a reason to be on the list. As I started to scroll through the list, it ended up being a lot easier than I thought. But as always, I needed a plan. I wanted it to be black and white so that I didn't feel guilty at all. So I came up with some rules. I thought that they might be useful to you guys as well.
1. Do they provide good content that I enjoy reading.
If so, it is worth following them so don't delete them! Even if they dont support or interact with me, I really enjoy thier stuff.2. Do they respond to comments that I leave on their blog.
This is a good sign. Often people post just for rewards and don't care about who reads it. Some members just try to flood the market with content thinking of themselves and not of others. If they don't take the time to respond to you, at least some of the time, then they do not really want or deserve your upvotes. If there are users that you are unsure about (or on the fence), this may be a good way to test them. Read and respond to a few of their posts and see if they interact.3. Do they ever comment on my blogs
Here is where we get to the good stuff. If they are taking the time to head over to your content, then they are actually beneficial to your social steem circle. Even if they don't have a large stack of SP, these are the poeple that you want around. It is even better if they are upvoting your content as well. Dont forget to make sure you are checking out their content too!So far I have cut down my following list to 58. I am pretty happy with the list that I have. By performing this activity, I have actually found out that I engage with a lot of members who comment on my posts. I don't always rely on my feed. So if I have cut someone who deserve to be on my list, I will most likely be seeing them in my comment section. So all is not lost.
I really suggest you take a look at your lists as well. I found some users who haven't posting in 5 months! It was very therapeutic...
He is an active member of The Alliance and teamcanada
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Interesting way to go about it. I'm pretty sure I met criteria 2 and 3, but I get you wanting to make your feed relevant again. Anyway, I won't unfollow you in return. I don't play the follow me follow you game or the unfollow for unfollow. For me the following feed is something to show an affiliation. Until there is a way to filter a friend's posts by tags, it will be too cumbersome to use. See you around. #thealliance.
I removed some members of groups that I am in as I see their posts on discord or by searching the tags.
As I stated, I actually found that many of the people I converse with back and forth were not even on my following list. I usually check out their feed after seeing a comment on one of my posts!
That's a good way to do it. I understand. I usually browse steemit using bookmarks to avoid the trending pages. I find that I have a better time surfing through new content than content already heavily upvoted. No hard feelings.
I actually try to use my votes on members with less steam power than myself. The authors in the trending pages already have followers whose vote it worth 100 of mine. Often members close to my level or lower appreciate the votes a lot more.
I did this several months back when I was following over 800 people. Got it down under 300 but it is climbing again. I started using a #thealliance filter, but I now it looks like many non members are using that tag. We need better tools for managing this.
Wow 600!
Sounds like you fell for the "follow me I will follow you" posts lol
I like to check out the post promotion of Discord.
Exactly. As a newbie, I followed everyone for awhile.
I would have to agree with you. My feed is getting really bogged down and filled with less than interesting content. Perhaps we should be treating it as Spring cleaning where we organize the clutter and make our feeds more useful again. Did you unfollow them or mute them? Just curious...
Just unfollowed.
I think I have only muted 3 or 4 people who like to spam in my comments.
I have only muted one. Do you know anything about the bot @travemaster aka the lovebot? Their dumb posts are cluttering up my feed. I am not following and I have muted but the posts keep coming. Any suggestions?
ha ha, a love machine. It must be attracted to you.
I have never heard of it or seen it.
I dont have any suggestions.... Sorry
I wish he would get unattached!
I am planning to do a clean up of my list as well in the new year this is some good points I will use fir my clean up
OMG ! your so lucky @dadview ! im following over 1,700 People !! ( You wouldnt know it though because my counter has not worked for months and kept thinking steemit would fix it! lol ! ) it would take me days to go through mine ! but you have a great idea to start the New Year off Fresh on Steemit !! ✌💕👍👌
wow that is crazy.
I bet that half of them haven't posted in the last month!
Glad you are able to find my posts, as your feed must be as busy as the "new" or "trending" tabs!
I usually check out the teamcanada Tag and upvote and see yours and other posts there ! ecause theres just to many in my feed! lol! 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
Just glad you find mine!
Me too ! and thanks again for the awesome 10.00 Steem!! 💕💕💕👍👍👍
Hi, you're right, but it's so lazy,
happy New Year
Some things are worth the effort!
I think it's really helpful to do this as it's much less stressful to look at a feed that is not filled with cludder
good observation man..!!
Well written and a good observation. I was introduced to steemit by a cousin just this December. At first I was told is a social media just like facebook but with rewards for your contents. But I just discovered that the platform is not interactive at all peope just drop post just to get reward which is not good with someone like me. And want to appeal to fellow steemians to make this platform interacting and not placing rewards first that makes it dull. I joined with the hope of making new friends from from other countries so we could interact and share views. Thanjks @dadview for your observation its as good as mine
Great to see you get in on the action, man! I've been out of the country so I have tons of catching up to do, but this is surely one of the very first few I wanted to comment on. Thanks for the shoutout and I hope that you have prosperous new year, man! Hoping to STEEM it up with you in 2018!