Verifying method.

Your follower count indicates the general community interest in your profile.

Get rid of it, and folks will feel like they are shouting into the void of nothingness if their notes don't get likes, zaps, etc. It's a reassurance thing.

It's a side effect of the brainwashing we've all been subject to.

I have a love/hate with that. It's unnecessary in most cases & mentally not very healthy, also easily manipulated... but I like to look through my list & find people who I can try to give some engagement to that may be just quiet, new, or trying but not getting any eyes. Could do away with the count but would still like to see the who's that reside there, I think.

Satellite lacks it now & it's very nice. Discovering people on Satellite is just a different type of experience than the other clients that I use.

I just used it a quick (albeit error-prone) way to verify that the Adam Back that just followed me wasn't the real one.

So there's that.