What makes you follow someone?

General Discussion
1

I’ve been riding on Zwift for about a month and a half now and I’ve had 5 random people start following me. I’m just curious what makes people decide to follow someone. I’m not sure who these people are, not that I mind if people want to follow me. Maybe they were in the vicinity of my rider at some point? Maybe they liked my snazzy GCN outfit that I got by typing in a promo code that was mentioned in one of GCN’s videos? Maybe they saw me post here on the forums?

What makes you decide to follow someone?

2

Its either the GCN skinsuit, your awesome personality that vibes during rides, or they want you to follow them and give them RideOns every time you open your Companion App and see them riding.

I keep my profile open and usually find that wannabe followers are from events I did with them, but some arent so who knows where they stalked me.

3

I always click the follow buttons next to the three people Zwift says I rode with on the ride summary page.

I will also follow someone during a ride, if we’ve been working well together.

Finally, I always follow back anyone who follows me.

2 Likes
4

While on a ride it’s great to get (in my own little mind) a connection with another rider. You may be exhausted after a long climb, then just as your thinking this is hard a rider pulls along side, and I use that to push on with them. Cat and mouse till the end is in sight… that’s great fun and good motivation for me and I hope for them too… we’ve worked together so it’s good to see how there getting on :+1:

5

In the early days (2015/16), I followed people who I saw a lot on rides. There were fewer people then, so it was common to start recognising people. Some were ride leaders, others notable Zwifters.

Then I followed people who were in my team (Vision).

A couple of years ago I followed anyone who was in DIRT (having left Vision when they got too serious for the likes of me :D). At one point I was following more than 1000 DIRT members. But that got too ridiculous, so now I just follow people I know or have developed some sort of relationship with.

That relationship might be that I follow them on YouTube, rather than a personal one. Or people I respect from the Zwift world etc.

I very seldom follow a stranger these days.

6

I follow people who I find myself in geo up a with during a race, that way if I see them again I know they’re around my standard and give me a target to stay with/beat

7

I follow people I know IRL, some pros, ride leaders/sweeps, notable Zwifters, or people I might’ve chatted with on a ride. I don’t follow every rando who gives me a Ride On on a freeride. But if you do, more power to ya.

8

Another take on this question, is what determines for you whether to accept someone’s request to follow you?

9

People I know personally are first. Then people I ride with and see in multiple rides. Then people who I work with in races together. Then people I see from the forum I’ve interacted with. I tend to follow riders with the same power profile.

I don’t have any restrictions on following me so I never see a request; they just follow.