Shadowban Chronicles 16: The Great Bot Drain My follower count dropped from ~106k to ~88.6k as X scrubs bots. Here is how a purge like this shifts your reach and how I’m adapting. What actually changes now: 1. Your denominator shrinks. Engagement rate rises for the same absolute actions. Rankers like high engagement per impression more than raw totals. 2. Your graph cleans. Fewer low‑quality edges means your next “bridge” like routes you into better clusters. Topic proximity improves. 3. Churn heuristics are spiky. Rapid follow/unfollow deltas can be read as instability. Expect a few days of volatility. Post less, post higher quality, and watch negative feedback. 4. Quality clicks matter more. Profile taps that turn into follows and bookmarks are stronger leading indicators than short reply bursts. My plan for purge week: 1. One hero per peak window only. Keep the timeline breathable to avoid diversity de‑dupe. 2. Design for “Good Profile Clicks.” Crisp 1‑line bio promise, fresh pinned canon, tidy lists. 3. Bridge intentionally. Write for 2‑3 neighboring accounts in the topic you want to break into. Earn a like, don’t ask for it. 4. Reduce bait that invites “show less.” Polarizing phrasing creates silent deboosts without any replies telling you so. Measure the right deltas: - Bookmarks per 1k impressions - Profile taps per 1k impressions - Follows per 100 profile taps (conversion) If you want a deeper breakdown of the purge effect and the metrics I track, I will write it up in Shadowbreak. The link is in my bio. Switch the bell on and bookmark this post if you want the live receipts.