Could you have more MORE followers than you THINK you have?
If you have say 40 followers, maybe a few share your ideas. I'm thinking 300 Facebook friends isn't as dumb as it sounds. Suppose a follower has various circles of friends (analogous to one's school friends, church friends, etc.). A circle could be like a trading post for info. Somebody has a car repair problem. Somebody else has a career problem. Your answers might be going around these units - cliques, cells, whatever you want to call them. A loose aggregate of 300 "friends" doesn't make much sense but this does.
I'm sharing this idea with Yahoo users but not necessarily you alone.
Gassy2015-03-06T19:22:17Z
I think of ancient Greece of being similar, in that you're either a student or you're a master. The more skilled (or popular) you are, the more students/followers you'd have. The system makes a lot of sense, and I wonder if there's a biological component to it, as "following" a more successful leader would give you a survival benefit as well. This biological component has a name: the Messiah complex. Explains our obsession with pop stars and prophets and "popular" people.
So yes, I think you could have any number of "followers", but I think its difficult, especially if your position is difficult to understand, to ensure the quality of your followers, because people are apt to follow even if they don't understand. Hence politics.
I don't know if my answer relates to your question, but that's what I read from it! Haha.
I wouldn't say that Diogenes had a "Messiah complex." If you remember the story of Alexander the Great visiting him and asking if there was anything he could do for the philosopher, he simply asked if Alexander could get out of the way, as the mighty conqueror was blocking his light. The answer doesn't suggest any great ambition.
Your idea depends on the assumption that the answers one has given are, indeed, worth sharing. You must consider it also in the reverse: you could in fact have LESS "true" followers than the 40, if the answers are disregarded by the majority.