TL;DR:
Abstract
There's a quantity of people on the Fediverse. A lot of things to see and read and hear and think about. I look at some parts of it & I do my best to curate a sensible timeline. I follow upwards of 6000 accounts, which may sound overwhelming; it hasn't been.
Foundational
When referenced below, the value of SomeMagicNumber is a 3 digit integer.
How I Follow
People
If an account's follower count, as visible to me, > SomeMagicNumber, then I will hesitate to follow, regardless of how often they show up in my timeline.
Otherwise, I will follow because something they posted to the Fediverse crossed my pane of cave wall & it seemed like a form I could comprehend. Or at least enjoy.
This also means that if you conceal your social graph or your instance does not disclose it in a form that the Mastodon fork I use understands, I have no idea if you are being heard by > SomeMagicNumber of people. So you're safe from my direct attention.
Rationale
The thing I most want to get out of the Fediverse is seeing connections happen. Every weird niche fandom, every obscure craft, all of the languages of the world, should have a place to talk about the things which matter to them. My goal is to find people who aren't being heard and elevate their voices.
How I Unfollow
My ultimate goal is to be following no one. Before then, I'd like to help people connect with community on the Fediverse. When I'm convinced that you've found Your People, I'll unfollow.
I wrote a Python script to help me identify people who've crested the SomeMagicNumber threshold of accounts paying attention to them. I review its recommendations & unfollow some subset of candidates. The script gets ran when I start to feel close to saturated by the Fediverse timelines that I peruse.
So if you're worried if something made me unfollow, the answer is yes. Your success at connecting with an internet community or communities which is not part of commercial social networks? That's cool. You're winning at Fediverse. The last thing you need is me holding you back, superstar.
Why Someone Should Follow Me
I boost stuff that I find interesting. If you're looking for things on the Fediverse which you can't quite articulate, you'll get lots of peeks at various clusters of instances, cultures, hashtags, communities, feuds. So if you're new to the Fediverse or bored by it, following me could help.
When Someone Should Unfollow Me
When your timelines are all as hopping as you want them to be. For some people that's going to be instantly. I have an itchy boosting finger and the philosophy that it's better to Unboost / Unfav than never have loved or whatever. So at the point that you would Hide My Boosts because we're in all of the same circles, you could just as easily unfollow. No offense taken. Fediverse asks you to manage your own experience, for better and for worse.
How I Read
But all of the accounts are my Home feed. It's interesting how rarely beings who aren't feeling heard will toot. My timeline isn't a firehose, it's a bit bursty around typical "messing around online" times of day but most of the time it saunters along.
I see the wildest stuff, in variegated splendor.
But the Coolest!
The obvious argument against reading Mastodon like this is that I am deliberately and concisely severing myself from some of the most popular people on the Fediverse. For many people, that's the entire reason they Mastodon.
It's not uncommon for the people which I'm following to Boost toots from renowned Fediverse accounts. So I don't miss much of the great doings, they eventually bubble up to my feed.