I think the first thing that has to go is this shortlist of influential people that are dominating the Farcaster feed since I joined in January 2024. Let's call them the OGs.

The OGs that were on the autofollow list and gained 1000s of followers in early 2024 by design are now deciding who ranks high on the rewards leaderboard.

You can easily spot OGs in the trending feed, they are there every single day. Their casts are trending even without any engagement.

These OGs also decide when your casts are trending and pushed by the algo by engaging with your cast.

Goes to the "bad experiments" bucket.

Although, from broader perspective they wanted to control the narrative the first days to minimise the spam and let users discover "quality content", I think it served the purpose, but far from what you would call "organic growth".

I won't forget my brother's reaction: "wtf, why I follow these people?"

Having said that, can you do something about it? Probably, not! Can you say for sure if users' growth was solely caused by the list?