TMP32: Do-Nothing Followers

Posted on November 1, 2021 | 71 Comments
TMP monday peeve kitty cat

Welcome to my refreshed Monday Peeve! Unburden yourself of an annoyance and you’ll feel better afterward. Or not. Complain in my comments or crab in your own post. Doesn’t have to be on a Monday. You do you.

Today’s peeve has been mentioned around Blogland frequently, but I thought it was time to dedicate an entire peeve to the DO-NOTHING FOLLOWER. You all know what I mean. Every day I get notifications of new followers, yay! Woohoo! More readers to enjoy my writing, right? Wrong! Most of them not only never say a freaking word or leave a like, but often they don’t even have a real blog for me to look at. No posts. Nothing. Who ARE these people? What do they want?

And it’s not just here. People follow me on Twitter and Medium only to stay quiet for all eternity. WHO ARE THEY? Why do they spend time following people for no reason? It’s not as if they’re selling anything or trying to get me to sign up for something. They just click the follow button and disappear. Since I hardly do anything on Twitter now, I don’t really care, but it does bother me on Medium. I recently began subscribing again ($5/month) so I could read other people’s stuff without limit, and I submitted a couple pieces myself. All along, I was amassing followers even while doing nothing, and now more follow me every day. Why? Beats the hell out of me. They aren’t reading my stuff, that’s for sure. I assume they expect me to follow back and/or read their writing, but eff that. I’m sorry, but there has to be some mutual interest for me to spend time on someone.

Bleh.

~*~

Image altered from the original on Pixabay.

©️2021 Paula Light and Light Motifs II. No unauthorized use permitted. Please check out Paula’s books for sale on Amazon. Thank you.

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71 responses to “TMP32: Do-Nothing Followers”

  1. Grace | November 1, 2021 at 4:24 am |

    I actually feel bad (but just fleetingly) when someone follows me and I don’t follow back…I have zero interest in ‘lifestyle’ blogs – I don’t really care about their new diet or the overpriced cosmetics or home products they’re flogging. Same goes for IG – there has always been the ‘tit-for-tat’ mentality in the blogging world. If I comment on their blog then they comment on mine, otherwise – crickets. OTOH – I follow quite a few photography blogs and there is rarely anything to comment on. How many times, and ways, can you say “Great photo”?

    Liked by 3 people

    • Paula Light | November 1, 2021 at 5:34 am |

      Right. I will check out a new (to me) blog is the blogger comments here, but I don’t always follow them. If they follow or like without comment, I don’t even look. I feel the same as you about photography blogs…

      Liked by 2 people

  2. Sadje | November 1, 2021 at 4:31 am |

    It’s the great unsolved mystery.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. ben Alexander | November 1, 2021 at 4:31 am |

    I have tons of those here on WP… I assume they just want my attention… but it doesn’t bother me per se, because they’re not doing anything to actively bother me, and, if anything, they make my stats seem more impressive 😉

    ❤
    David

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Keera Ann Fox | November 1, 2021 at 4:39 am |

    But I like being a random, anonymous reader! I follow a bunch of people because I do want to see what they say, but I don’t necessarily want to interact with them. And if I don’t like/support, I don’t click “like”. That’s dishonest, IMO.

    Liked by 2 people

  5. claudiajustsaying | November 1, 2021 at 5:35 am |

    Don’t think they are reading much, I am concerned like on FB, these strangers hope to access anything personal. Then what? . . . . You tell me. . . .just saying, I may be crazy . . . but in the past when I received an email message on my yahoo mail of a new follower, I sent a personal thank you. No longer do this, thinking they’ll have my personal email and access to my contacts. On occasion I’ve removed them as a follower. Claudia

    Liked by 1 person

  6. popsiclesociety | November 1, 2021 at 6:31 am |

    I have noticed it too on different platforms and I can’t understand it either…you follow someone because you’re interested in what they’re doing or you like how they write, what’s the point in following someone and disappear? 🧐

    Liked by 1 person

  7. henhouselady | November 1, 2021 at 7:32 am |

    You have a very good point. I always try to support the people I follow. I enjoy reading the stuff they post. Sometimes it is hard to keep up with all the activity on social media.

    Liked by 1 person

  8. Ashley L. Peterson | November 1, 2021 at 7:36 am |

    The whole thing puzzles me, especially when there’s nothing to follow back. What’s the point? I have no interest in playing the follow-follow back game. Artificiality is a turn-off.

    Liked by 2 people

  9. newepicauthor | November 1, 2021 at 8:38 am |

    I have 1,492 Followers and I wish that I could get rid of 1,400 of them, because they are completely useless.

    Liked by 2 people

  10. Melanie B Cee | November 1, 2021 at 9:46 am |

    I have a good friend who uses Medium to blog. She said it was a ton easier to use than WordPress AND there’s the possibility of getting paid for your blogging when your follow count hits 100 or something. She has encouraged me to go over there, and I’ve checked it out, but am too tired presently to mess around with setting the stuff up, plus they’re super pushy over there (I got at least five emails the day I visited encouraging me to set up a profile and when I did, at least two a day O_o Um…No.)
    ANYWAY My friend said that some folks do that whole follow thing in the hope that you’ll follow them in return, thus getting them closer to their hoped for payday. That might explain it. I have the same thing happen here, I get 2-3 a week, and then *poof* nothing. Woo. 🤔 (I shall be back with my contribution to TMP presently)

    Liked by 1 person

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  13. pensitivity101 | November 1, 2021 at 11:11 am |

    I’m with you on this too Paula. They also reblog you with no intro.
    My theory is they just ‘sign on’ to boost their own stats, so I delete them. I also hate the ‘bloggers’ with the same picture and half a dozen sites, which are all marketing!!

    Liked by 2 people

  14. House of Heart | November 1, 2021 at 12:45 pm |

    I have had an issue for awhile with WP because many of the blogs I follow don’t show up in my notifications or email. It is sometimes erratic. I know this must happen to others so I don’t hold it against them personally they are not tracking me down , after all people are quite busy these days. I appreciate all my followers and if they are only able to come around a few times, I still appreciate that…if like was mentioned they actually read and not automatically like, that’s a no no.

    Liked by 1 person

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  16. King Ben's Grandma | November 1, 2021 at 2:19 pm |

    I’ve been getting ones who “get notifications” whatever that means🤷🏼‍♀️ It IS rather annoying.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. aguycalledbloke | November 1, 2021 at 3:19 pm |

    It’s strange, recently l had a conversation with Ashley about the reduced interaction and engagement from followers we are seeing over the last 12 months. Everyone knows my absolute distates of the Likemonli Monsters and their buggering about liking everything with a pulse! I took my LIKE button away from my blog although it is still present configuratively speaking on the Reader, but l don’t miss not seeing it on my actual blog.

    I recently painstakingly went through 2700 of my followers in the directory and extracted all the blogs that have gone dark and no longer exist and as l have seen jim above comment he wishes he could get rid of followers, well l will be performing that task this month. Getting rid of those who don’t comment or interact.

    I don’t follow back anyone these days so it’s not like l am encouraging people to follow me and l am pretty bloody one minded when it comes to my small community of friends socially on here anyway. I have a reading frame that comprises of 22 regular and frequeent readers and 10 irregular readers and 5 who are currently MIA or on blog leave and that’s fine by me. i add a new person to my reading list once every 12 weeks and that is only after l watch their reading and engagement habits.

    Good rant.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Paula Light | November 1, 2021 at 4:29 pm |

      Thanks! I followed Melanie’s instructions to Jim and am tossing these DNFs off the rolls!

      Liked by 1 person

      • aguycalledbloke | November 2, 2021 at 12:33 pm |

        Paula, how did you suddenly offload so many at once? I see now you are 306 followers and last time l looked you were 100 higher than me. That was maybe two weeks ago. I have been slowly going through my directory and removing but each one takes about 5 seconds per deletion is there a quicker or mass way of deletion?

        Liked by 1 person

      • Paula Light | November 2, 2021 at 2:33 pm |

        I did it the long way, same as you, though on my phone. It took a few hours! 😜

        Liked by 1 person

      • aguycalledbloke | November 2, 2021 at 2:36 pm |

        Yes, as l am doing now, once you get a speed on, you then become obsessed and start deleting like the airs is about to run out ……. or maybe that’s just me hahaha 🙂

        I started at 2750 earlier this morning and took it to 2400 before Jeremy came to do bits in the garden. Then l restarted at arounf 7pm and now l am on 1692. I will keep at it till l get to my desired figure around 200.

        Liked by 1 person

      • aguycalledbloke | November 2, 2021 at 2:36 pm |

        You certainly start to see how many business sites follow you …

        Liked by 1 person

      • aguycalledbloke | November 2, 2021 at 4:17 pm |

        Got it down to 113 followers – that’s about right 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • Paula Light | November 3, 2021 at 5:31 am |

        Inspired by you, I threw off a few more 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • aguycalledbloke | November 3, 2021 at 6:20 am |

        Haha – it’s like a contagion …. l was looking at mine thinking , mm, l could probably lose another 13!!

        Liked by 1 person

      • aguycalledbloke | November 3, 2021 at 6:28 am |

        Frightening in some ways tho isn’t it? That of all the people who follow – the % that actually do ‘anything’ aside from nothing is very slim pickings indeed.

        When you look at those with anything past 4k of figures and then start to trace the reality – it amounts to nothing.

        I think many people if they performed this action might be a little shocked by it all, but the real fact is NOT many will actually do it … because of how suddenly REAL those true figures will reflect their readership/engagements.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Paula Light | November 3, 2021 at 6:33 am |

        Right. It’s a nice feeling to see the high number, but only a small percentage are reading our words. I’d rather have the number reflect reality 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • aguycalledbloke | November 3, 2021 at 6:40 am |

        Ditto and as you said to someone yesterday, now the hard graft has been performed, sustaining the lower numbers is way easier now. Once l got a roll on the deletion process, l found l could press up to six at the same time, and know that 505 would disappear, wash, rinse and repeat and it took me all in all maybe just under three hours. Now, a check once a week and l am ready to tock and roll again. BUT, totally, l want to see a readership that engages with me, plus let’s be honest, we can only read from a small percentage of readers and we ONLY read from a small selection of readers anyway … 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

      • aguycalledbloke | November 3, 2021 at 6:41 am |

        505 = 50%

        Like

      • Paula Light | November 3, 2021 at 6:54 am |

        Yep. And now I can keep up with the newcomers (by deleting most of them immediately, lol). I’m a happier blogger 🥰

        Liked by 1 person

      • aguycalledbloke | November 3, 2021 at 10:29 am |

        Very much so … but also what l am not doing is unfollowing bloggers as well. in the first couple of years l followed more, thinking that was the done deal …. they don’t interact with me, l don’t interact with them, so as l have removed followers, it’s only fair l remove myself from them as well.

        Sadly that process is much longer.

        I will be writing a post similar to yours sometime this week and will pay credit to your post and the discussion Ashley and l had last week too.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Paula Light | November 3, 2021 at 10:38 am |

        I look forward to it!

        Liked by 1 person

  18. claudiajustsaying | November 1, 2021 at 3:37 pm |

    While we’re on the subject, can anyone tell me why my views jumped to 1,097 from under 200 for the week? , , , just saying, Claudia

    Liked by 1 person

  19. Roy | November 1, 2021 at 4:07 pm |

    I’m mystified. Is it sort of like a pyramid scheme, but with no particular agenda?
    But for me, it’s not a problem anyway. On the Internet, I’m practically non-existent.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. anne leueen | November 1, 2021 at 6:00 pm |

    YES! Who are these people? I am about a 200 or so below 3000 followers. I think if you have more followers then more just follow because they think it will rub off on them. And when I look at their blog sites…nothing or something suspiciously innocuous! Why are they following me anyway?

    Liked by 1 person

  21. O.D. | November 1, 2021 at 7:31 pm |

    Lol most are bots. They suck tbh. And others are as you mentioned — doing the follow for follow thing. I wish there was a way to regulate it.

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Carol anne | November 1, 2021 at 10:45 pm |

    Agreed! I hate the random followers who say nothing! Its so irritating! xo

    Liked by 1 person

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