It's probably not the only tool out there which allows us to see our dead followers, but I've just came across it and used it.
Steem.Agency is a website created by @SirCork, to showcase the contributions of the "NobleWitness Team" to the ecosystem. Checking your dead followers, as well as checking the users you follow that are now dead are two tools that have been added to Steem.Agency.
I warn you, if you use the above tools, most likely you won't like the results. The market conditions also helped turn quite a few people away from Steem. I know at least some followers of mine (and also people I followed, obviously), that were quite, if not very active some time ago, and now they are deemed "dead" by these tools, not without reason.
Here's what came up for me, when I used the condition to have at least one post written during the past month as a criterion to separate a dead follower from an active one:
That's roughly 70% dead followers, but among the "true followers", how many had bot generated posts or are duplicate accounts? So, the amount of dead followers can be even more concerning.
On the other hand, some of these followers deemed dead may simply be dormant during the unfavorable market, although it has been told so many times of the benefits of staying consistent with posting, and pile up the rewards, without always checking the price of STEEM in fiat. But, not everyone can do that.
We can also use voting as a criterion, in which case here's what I've got:
This time, roughly 26% of my followers are "dead". But voting can be easily automated, so why even consider this criterion? Well, think of it this way: the fact one considered to set up an automated vote, might mean they are prepared to return on certain conditions, or that they still keep an eye on what's going on here. Otherwise they would've powered down, left and never looked back.
These results (and others more or less similar), either reveal or confirm the following points:
- the total number of followers an account has is generally irrelevant
- the number of people who engage with your posts is much more important (unfortunately, I'm doing something wrong, because I rarely get engagement on my posts)
- many users become active or inactive based on the price of STEEM; active when it's high, inactive when it's low
- the older an account, the likelier to be "dead", because most people simply aren't consistent to keep up with an activity on the long term
We can also use the "Following the Dead" tool to show us who have we been following that is currently considered "dead", based on one of the two criteria above.
The results can also be reveling. You most likely started to follow an active user. If the account is no longer active, and also based on the type of content and how regular the posting was previously, this can be a good time to unfollow.
I used this opportunity to check out the accounts I followed. Unfolllowed about a dozen and followed a few new people. Probably I will follow more as I discover them.
Maybe there's a lesson to be learned here by those who indulge the idea of having long periods of absence. Some of your followers might not be waiting for you. I probably won't. So, you'd have to start over building a true following.