Instagram has considered hiding the Like count on photos. No kidding.

I guess good things want to spread, even in the silos. Setting a good example has always been a worthy strategy in this world.

@Ron

Only the person who posted a photo will be able to see the number of likes it’s received.

Expect people to post screenshots of how many likes they have received.

@pratik Oh my, are there really such self absorbed people? Yes, I suppose there are.

@pratik @ron and if any of that info is exposed via the API or can be scraped from the site expects services that publish the data...

@ronguest Yikes, it's heading toward a new nightmare!

@Ron I find it interesting how what I look out for has changed in the 6 months or so that I have on micro.blog. When I moved to here I really noticed (though didn't want to) the fact that Likes were not part of the platform. Now I don't notice it.

@Ron Yup. Half of the Explore tab on Instagram is screenshots of tweets or other text-based stuff. @ronguest That's true although am not sure if FB/Instagram hasn't already locked down their API. But then if you don't want to flaunt stuff, why even have Instagram/FB?

@Ron @pratik @ronguest How will the media ever report on who has the most-liked photo of all-time now! Oh, the horrors—feel-good, “human interest” stories at the ends of newscasts might actually have to be of human interest now!

That does appear to be a change from last year’s policy of doubling down on dirty numbers.

@crossingthethreshold @Ron It’s as if we need a period of time to detox from the toxic patterns that have been established elsewhere and retrain our minds (and perhaps to realize that The way things are is not the only way they could be).

@pratik Oh, that’s disgusting—and useless. I can’t even imagine. Certainly highlights the fabulous and vitally important work that @macgenie does with Discover. // @Ron @ronguest

@pratik Popularity is fundamental to the business model so I feel it unlikely they would abandon it, just hide it a bit (?)

@ronguest If they’re competent, they’ll alter the API to only return Likes for photos belonging to the currently-authenticated user and likewise only insert it into the underlying HTML or JSON for your own photos ;-) // @pratik @Ron

@smokey and someone will start a service where you can give it permission to harvest your data...

Sorry, I’ve seen it happen so I am mighty cynical. Also if OwnYourGram still works I don’t think they’ve locked out the IG API?

@ronguest I don’t doubt it at all. They’ve gotten everyone so hooked on their crack that even if they decide they want to stop dealing, everyone is going to rush to whatever shady dealer turns up next.

(Also, I suppose no one does crack anymore, but it’s been a long time since high school health class drug education!)

@crossingthethreshold Yes, that's interesting for sure. At one point in the past we had a period when a lot of people arrived here and seemed very bothered about how we do things. But we managed to survive that and, as you point out, folks eventually get used to the way things are done here, so we're not having to constantly defend our ways against preconceived notions of newcomers. And fairly quickly the newcomers are happy just like the rest of us.

@Ron unlearning is just as important as learning