It's funny that you mentioned the followers stats as we noticed that upon uploading our post on Friday. It went from 531 to 570 - that's an increase of 39 followers in a matter of seconds. Something really weird indeed. You can check out those 'followers' in Busy.org as you log in, there's the notification tab. We looked into a couple of them and saw no activity in all of them plus the users were added this month. Still, we're not too focused on the numbers anymore and just having fun on here. For us, it's more about powering up and we also have an eye out for our rep level, yet that could easily be pushed up with bid bots (if we wanted it). We help out in certain communities (Steemit and Discord) and engage with fellow Steemians. Yes, there have been a few that have dropped off the scene since we joined, but they have their reasons. One day, we'll slow down too, but for now we're plugging away. We have a lot to look forward to Sndbox Final Quest and potentially assisting on some projects by Steemians that we are close to.
A lot of people have reported about the in-rush of followers recently. And it's still a question and just a lot of suspicions what it might be. But you're right, it's better not to focus too much on these numbers. I'm also more concerned about my SP more than my rep. It's really where your upvote can make a difference on someone's post.
And I'm also looking forward to the next Sndbox quest! You know I had disappointments recently but thanks for reminding me about the quest where we should be focusing more soon. :)
No worries and we understand your frustrations. We have been noticing what you have stated in your post, but maybe it's us at four/five months. We're sure there's a map of emotions with Steemit depending on how long you have been here and where you're at. If anyone has done and post about that, we would love to see it and find out what would we be going through in the next 2-3 months and beyond. Hahaha, Steemit is not that generic.