Upcoming video social app Neptune will allow hiding follower and like counts:

A key distinguishing feature of Neptune is that it lets creators hide their total followers and likes. This “ghost metrics” feature is optional, however, and is designed to help users avoid the pressures associated with follower count, yet still caters to creators who may want to showcase their metrics.

Good. Might as well go all the way and hide counts by default.

@manton I don’t get the optionality of that. If it’s off, there is a concrete point being made about what the app is and why a user might opt to use it. If it’s optional, it’ll almost certainly end up like everything else.

@combatdavey My guess is they wanted to hide everything but were nervous about it, so they kind of went halfway.

@manton I don’t make stuff the way you do (though I wish I could), but it seems pretty obvious that if you try to please everyone you’ll end up pleasing no one.

@numericcitizen Not planning for that, but I’ll keep an eye on how it works for Neptune.

@manton Meh. Looks like another start-up that will own whatever network one manages to build. The word “visionary” in the CEO’s bio reads like a red flag to my tech-jaded eyes.

@markstoneman Yeah, my expectations are extremely low. Almost all new closed social networks are going to fail.

@manton 😿