Yes, I pushed the button.

My former facebook “fan page” — the one with 11,000 followers — “ZERO DEAN THINKS YOU’RE AWESOME!” is now resting peacefully in the vast expanse of cyber-energy that is the matrix — sorry, just trying to make it sound poetic.

But if you’re reading this and feel a sense of loss over the other page — because it matters to you — I hope you won’t. Because… if you’re reading this, you’re likely one of the few dozen people who actively participated on & followed the page. And if you are and don’t know yet, I have a new page that replaces the old one.

I’m still here & that is where I will be posting my adventures & travel experiences.

But what about the ~10,970 people we just lost!!!?

Appearances can be deceiving. The main thing ~11,000 followers (only a few dozen of whom ever consistently participated) did was artificially inflate how ‘important’ I appeared or how many people I was reaching.

I realize in this day & age that numbers have value, but personally, I’d much rather be judged by my actions, than some artificial “importance” that numbers provide.

If the numbers grow again, I certainly don’t plan on nuking the new page — I just don’t plan on going out of my way a second time to advertise my page in order to gain an audience that doesn’t really know who or what they’re following anyway — which is my only explanation for having 11,000 fans, of which only a few ever made themselves known.

The “problem” with having 11,000 “followers”…

For those who don’t understand how having 11,000 followers would be problematic, let me explain…

When you have 11,000 followers, but only a few dozen of them are ever “active”, it makes it appear as if what you’re posting/writing is of very little significance — because ~10,970 others do nothing.

Now, I have no issue if people don’t participate or “connect” with me due to a lack of time or faded interest — provided they started following me out of genuine interest to begin with…

But the fact is, I created this problem by focusing on quantity over quality.

In the first few months of my journey, I “advertised” my facebook page in various places all over the world in an effort to gain numbers because I thought it would help — and perhaps it did on some occasions. Maybe some folks saw my numbers and thought, “Whoa, thousands of followers? — That guy must have something interesting going on…“, so they decided to follow. And that’s fine — but if it was only the numbers that swayed them, and not the content, I consider that a problem.

So it became difficult to judge interest in my posts, links, or photos because 99% of my audience did… nothing.

So that’s why I’m starting over with a new page.

I was peddling away on a stationary bike thinking about the “disconnect” between followers & feedback and ways that I could fix the issue. Nuking the page came up as a VERY SCARY, but viable option.

Really? Shed 10,970 followers? Just like that? But what about your numbers!? — It’s not about the numbers. Those who noticed & cared enough would re-follow. And those who didn’t notice or care — um, that actually SOLVES the problem.

And so I was looking at the page options and saw the “deactivate this page” button — which the text next to it assured me was “forever”. And so I looked fear in the face and decided to act on it then and now, rather than hesitate. It felt like the right choice at the time.

It is a setback? Yes. But is it a mistake? I don’t think so.

Take a breath — it’ll be ok (he says to himself). ;)

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” — Dr. Seuss