Who cares ? it's just a number in some database.

Your interactions with real people are what counts, not how many packets get pumped around on some serverfarm. If you think it matters how many 'followers' you've got then I would suggest the following businessmodel for twitter:

- 10 followers extra = $1 / month - 100 followers extra = $5 / month - 1000 followers extra = $25 / month - 10000 followers extra = $125 / month

That way you too can be te envy of your neighbourhood.

By making the number public they're inviting gaming the system because peoples egos are involved. Why not capitalize on that :)

Thanks guys for your comments. Shame HN doesn't send notification when a person leaves a comment, or am I missing an option?

one failed cloud (memcached) hundreds of wrong follower counts :)

I lost over 100 followers today.