Equal and Opposite Reactions

I recently engaged in a discussion about reactions here in CivitAI that got me thinking about "value," as a general abstract concept. Reactions and follows are immaterial, and therefore not bound by any physical law: there's no limit to them. Most social media thrives on engagement, and as such they want people to engage with it as much as possible. Engaging as much as possible, however, doesn't mean that the quality of the engagement is high, and it often seems like there's little or no consideration given to quality. Rewarding reactions or follows is an example of this: you get some blue buzz, and that's it. But how could we nourish an environment that upholds some standard of quality?

Scarcity

Because reactions and follows are completely unlimited, we don't really have to consider whether to react or to follow; especially so when rewarded. That doesn't mean that everyone reacts or follows thoughtlessly, of course not. But one simple thing came to mind, that could potentially encourage people to be more mindful: scarcity. If we were given a limited amount of reactions and follows, we would probably see a drastic shift. We can see it already, if we think about yellow buzz. I've been sending images to the buzz beggars board for a while now, not with the intention of getting any buzz, but just as a way to get some more visibility; most images get very few or no tips, in no small part due to the fact that buzz is scarce. In some ways getting a tip is a much stronger signal, exactly because tips are scarce.

I'm not saying that limiting reactions and follows is going to solve any fundamental problem with CivitAI. I'm not even recommending them to implement this change; I don't think they'll do it, at any rate, because that would certainly sacrifice engagement on the site.

I also have to point out that scarcity is just one of the inputs of "value," and does not, by itself, define it. Some things are scarce but have no value. Some things are abundant and extremely valuable. The main value of yellow buzz in this platform is its utility in generating images and videos. For people with local setups, that don't depend on the site, that has lower value.

So, what do you think?

As usual, this is more of a rant rather than an actual proposal. What are your thoughts on the subject?

Cheers.