I voted 150, but "it depends on what you want to do". Some people can handle audiences of thousands and have a purpose for it. I'm fine with my hundred or so regular connections.
I do a lot of polls on my account at Mastodon. I get the same questions or requests multiple times, so I made this FAQ to make it easier to reply. Q: Why do you do so many polls? A: I like to think…
it really depends on the network. An open network that’s meant for information sharing and public discourse shouldn’t have a limit because you want the diverse range of sources and connections but if it’s a personal or a private network like Path was then it should be limited to encourage high quality connections.
I recall people asking Path to expand the limit of connections they can have but these people IMO fail to understand the point of the app.
Similarly with Friendster, many public figures got around the friend limit on Path by creating additional accounts and numbering them which created some sort of elitism around those who managed to get in on the lower numbered accounts.
No limit, because using Lists means I don't have to deal with all of it anyway. The stuff I absolutely want to see everyday (Tech news) I let appear in my Home timeline, the rest gets put into topic-themed Lists (like News) that I just check sometimes (though News leaks through anyway, people being people, and so if people are talking about something that I don't know what it is they're referring to, then I go check my News List to see what it is they're talking about 😀 ).
People with ~150 connections are interested in a good exchange of ideas, above 150 are interested in spreading their messages. Thats a different approach.
Hmm, connection means bidirectional? I don't think I can follow more than 500 people (and I delete silent accounts after a while). My timeline is full enough.
But I can handle a lot more followers (and if I get too many reactions to a particular post, I turn it off).
So something between 500 and 50,000, but I can't map that to the poll.
I think it depends on both (1) what software tools the platform gives folks for managing the connections (power tools=>more connections, bad/minimal tools=>set a limit before too many cracks start to show), and (2) what vibe the platform is trying to create.
Both of those are things that have no wrong answer.
(This translated to a "No limit" vote, even though I think many platforms should have limits.)
Honestly, I think the 50-person limit on Path was a great challenge and made you consider carefully what kind of social connections you were cultivating. Having real, rich relationships with 50 people would be really nice. That all said, I think having a close connections group and a public connections group makes sense, too. I'd say 50 for close friends, 5000 for public.
Evan Prodromou
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Path had an initial limit of 50, later expanded to 150.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Path_%28social_network%29?wprov=sfla1
The current Facebook limit is 5000.
https://www.facebook.com/help/246750422356731
social network
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)Adriano
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Adriano • • •Poll FAQ
Evan Prodromou's BlogJessamyn
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Aulia Masna
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •it really depends on the network. An open network that’s meant for information sharing and public discourse shouldn’t have a limit because you want the diverse range of sources and connections but if it’s a personal or a private network like Path was then it should be limited to encourage high quality connections.
I recall people asking Path to expand the limit of connections they can have but these people IMO fail to understand the point of the app.
Similarly with Friendster, many public figures got around the friend limit on Path by creating additional accounts and numbering them which created some sort of elitism around those who managed to get in on the lower numbered accounts.
Now I can’t recall if Path went ahead with the plan to raise the friend limit from 150 to 500 but I certainly wrote about it 10 years ago. They were likely justifying the increase because Path already introduced the Inner Circle feature to accommodate the gossiping among the inner cro… *cough* I mean for the super close friends https://dailysocial.id/post/path-will-lose-its-charm-if-it-goes-ahead-with-plans-to-raise-its-friend-limit-to-500-per-user
Path Will Lose Its Charm if it Goes Ahead With Plans to Raise Its Friend Limit to 500 Per User
Dailysocialbignose
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •I think "connections" should be unlimited, but I think it's a mistake to treat *all* connections as equivalent.
50 "friends" is normal. 5000 "friends" is nonsense. But 500000 "connections" can be reasonable, provided they're not assumed to be friend connections.
💡𝚂𝗆𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗆𝖺𝗇 𝙰𝗉𝗉𝗌📱
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •John Francis
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to John Francis • • •Blort™ 🐀Ⓥ🥋☣️
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •petpet
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Dan Jones 🥥🌴
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Whatever the database can handle.
@evan@cosocial.ca
Aljoscha Rittner (beandev)
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Hmm, connection means bidirectional? I don't think I can follow more than 500 people (and I delete silent accounts after a while). My timeline is full enough.
But I can handle a lot more followers (and if I get too many reactions to a particular post, I turn it off).
So something between 500 and 50,000, but I can't map that to the poll.
Pierre
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Ed Wiebe
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •Evan Prodromou
in reply to Ed Wiebe • • •Luke T. Shumaker
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •I love this poll!
I think it depends on both (1) what software tools the platform gives folks for managing the connections (power tools=>more connections, bad/minimal tools=>set a limit before too many cracks start to show), and (2) what vibe the platform is trying to create.
Both of those are things that have no wrong answer.
(This translated to a "No limit" vote, even though I think many platforms should have limits.)
Evan Prodromou
in reply to Evan Prodromou • • •