Advice for new folks: Complete your profile info -- at least your name, ideally some bio info and avatar -- before you import your contacts to start following people on here.

The notification a person gets when you follow them is the salient moment to be followed back. But I'm getting notifications of new followers where I just see a handle I don't recognize and the default elephant. I'm sure some of those are people I know and would follow back if I realized who they were.

@seema_econ thank you for your suggestion. However, personally, I decided to get rid of my previous followers/followed (with few exceptions) and start fresh on Mastodon. By the way, I've been in "that place" yesterday after 1 month I left, and there's hate and bullying everywhere. It's scary how much the "owner-lifestyle" (and words and actions) can influence ppl attitude. Food for thoughts. For ppl who think.