I rather prefer not knowing who has me in their wishlist or has favorited my shop and others not being able to see how many favorites your shop has. It seems that it would put a lot of pressure and anxiety out there if we could see who did and did not like us or our items… It would end up being a huge popularity contest or like all the other sites where people become obsessed with collecting more fans and harassing others to follow them.
Or people getting discouraged because they aren’t as popular.
I wrote this in Dec
Then I bent to pressure and used the follower’s only feature and tried to have a follower’s only giveaway and the results have led me to a lot of thinking.
Follower counts are in no way indicative of the quality of the shop being followed. I watched a shop with ZERO patterns get over 200 followers in a single afternoon. My confidence in my skill as a designer is not dependent upon my follower count. I also would not shop at any store that required me to join the mailing list in order to shop there. I was going against my core values and I needed to be reminded that I will always have the courage of my convictions.
So I have decided to stand up and be the change I want to see.
There will no longer be follower exclusive designs in my shop. I trust that my people will find me, and I will not put any barriers between me and them. I will take pride in any followers I get, because I will know that they were not coerced in any way to do so.
If you are struggling with stress or anxiety over your follower count, take a deep breath and remember that comparison is the thief of happiness. Focus on your designs, improve your skills, produce the best possible work you are capable of at all times, and your people will find you as well.
I love this!
Yes!!!
I think I will also remove the follower exclusive patterns. I don’t like the clutter in my shop when editing a pattern to be released. This includes the featured patterns. I have to scroll through too many to get to the one I want. I think we need a search function in there also.
The free drawing is different. It is the only way to get the “spin” or raffle ticket. I don’t have the time or know how to add all the names to another app to somehow get a spin. So, if /when I do another drawing, it will still be followers only. Just not on the condition “if I get enough”. More so, if you want the chance also. Does that make sense?
I figured I could do a limited event on a new pattern where it’s follower long enough to do a give away or at a special discount for followers for a few days, then change it to regular.
You can also give away a pattern without publishing it. So you can make a double and do the drawing or make a bundle just for that
Yes, I thought the same on new patterns. I don’t think I knew about giving away an unpublished pattern. Interesting!
I did free up the “clutter” in my shop. Much better. I will still make a suggestion to Ribblr in a separate post.
I agree!
There was a question posted not long ago, regarding advice you would give a beginner.
Mine was: “Don’t compare your work with anyone else’s. We are individuals & our work should embrace that. Use those fancy internet photos as a guide only.”
I use that rule with all things.
I get that my designs are out of the norm for many, so follow me or don’t, it doesn’t change the worth of my work.
I set up 4 of my patterns as follower exclusive to thank those that were already following me, That was my only intention when doing so, my way of saying thanks and giving back to the community that follow me for me.
Having said that, I have seen a spike in followers and I think they are only following for those 4 patterns, rather than any of my others.
I don’t let follower counts determine my own confidence levels, I am confident in my ability to teach, design and write patterns. I have been teaching crochet for a decade now and designing since 2017, and been in two magazines. I don’t know everything yet and am always learning and evolving.
Your original post is 100% correct. Sadly it also drives activity so sites won’t stop doing it.
It’s why they tie features to it too, all in attempt to gain activity. Since by tieing features to it you can entice people with high follow counts somewhere else to send the followers here to use the unique feature.
A shop with 0 patterns and 200 follows confuses the heck out of me though. 
In the end be it for the individual or the site itself these are vanity and not indicative of skill or success. Sadly people are easily addicted to it.
Not everyone has those things in their back pocket though, and some haven’t yet learned not to value themselves by the number of followers they have. Not everyone is there yet. This feels like a popularity contest. It’s uncomfortable. Ive Made all my patterns open and no longer exclusive to followers only. I’ve decided to be part of the change.
Wow, this is very inspiring 
You’re absolutely right and it’s taken 10 years to get where I am through hard work and organic growth.
I hadn’t even thought that having “exclusive for followers” patterns would be something that would spark this line of conversation. I thought of it as a feature that could be used to thank existing followers.
Thank you! my birthday was a month ago, today marks one year on the site
I mean you can’t even tell who is following you anyway, so what is the point of the number? Just curious. Just feels like a pointless attention grab.
Absolutely! 
Exactly 
It was my understanding that following a shop only did the following things
Made it easier to filter patterns in the library
Created better suggestions in the weekly personalized notification
Made sure you got notification if a designer published a new pattern or put a pattern on sale.
It was not supposed to give you any type of advantage in searches or make your patterns more prominent over others.
So unlike monetized content, those clicks are not really supporting or promoting anything… They just tell other people you are popular when they see it.
At least, that was how I understood it.
I thought it let’s you do giveaways? If that’s not the case I’m doing it wrong. I tried to encourage my shop follows with exclusive things to do a giveaway plan later.
So long as any number is shown it doesn’t matter if you can see who the people are or not. It creates a system where people are posting their numbers and celebrating based on numbers. It’s a nice thing to do for their followers but definitely turns it into a competition in the minds of many and perpetuates the feeling that if a shop that’s just started, has few or no patterns and 100+ followers that you’re failing, doing something wrong, or are generally disliked. This is easier to handle if your shop gets sales even if just now and then but for people who haven’t seen sales yet will have a harder time avoiding the comparisons.
Personally I’m excited for that feature they were talking about putting in beta for free patterns.