Micro.blog has always been philosophically opposed to like counts and retweets. We think the dopamine hit of public likes tends to encourage performative behavior on the social web, leads to popularity contests and needless reloading of notifications that is mentally exhausting, and incentivizes platforms to build timeline algorithms around metrics.
None of that is changing in Micro.blog. But there is a long-standing hole created by this view of the social web: your followers on the fediverse and atmosphere don’t know their likes are going into the void, and you can’t discover new people to follow based purely on likes and reposts.
Over the next few months, I’m rolling out a new feature to fix this. Behind the scenes, Micro.blog is starting to note when one of the following happens:
- Like, boost, or quote from Mastodon.
- Like or repost from Bluesky.
- Like from a blog via Webmention.
Instead of displaying them in a chronological list, there will be a new page that shows you a selection of other people who have liked or reposted your posts. This gives you a view to check occasionally to see who appreciates your blog. It’s centered around people, not posts. People you might want to follow back within Micro.blog or elsewhere on the social web.
As I’ve been thinking about this, I also reviewed Glass’s appreciations. They shipped this a few years ago. I think their implementation does solve some traditional problems of public likes, but it doesn’t feel right for Micro.blog.
I’ll share more when all of this is officially launched. I hope that it strikes the right balance of giving a little more information for discovery while preserving the quieter, slow nature of blogs and the IndieWeb.
