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Stars, followers and social networks

Abyss Spotlight provides three social mechanics to qualify a project's traction and nurture a community around it: Stars, Followers and social networks.

Stars​

Stars are an appreciation indicator: any logged-in Abyss visitor can star a project to signal they find it interesting. The total star count is shown publicly on the project page.

  • One Star per user per project.
  • Visitors can remove their Star at any time.
  • Stars don't send a notification — it's an appreciation metric, not a subscription.

The more Stars a project gathers, the higher it ranks in Spotlight discovery.

Followers​

Following a project means subscribing to its feed. When you follow a project:

  • you are automatically notified of every new post, by email and through an Abyss notification,
  • the project appears in your personal feed of followed projects,
  • you can unsubscribe at any time, with no notice.

On the project side, the author sees the follower count and can factor it in when publishing (pace, tone, importance of the topic).

Social networks​

You can set links to the project's official social networks (Twitter/X, LinkedIn, GitHub, website, etc.). These links appear in the sidebar of the public project page.

The goal is twofold:

  • let visitors follow the project outside of Abyss,
  • gather every contact point in a single place.

Best practices​

  • Set your social networks at page creation time: an interested visitor won't come back to look for you elsewhere.
  • Don't abuse posts: too many notifications make followers unsubscribe. Save posts for announcements that truly matter.
  • Stars ≠ followers: you can star without wanting to follow, and vice versa. The two metrics give a complementary picture of traction.