I think it depends on objectives

I'm not quite a newbie but I probably fit the profile of 'rando' account in that I'm not a public figure nor a Nostr / Bitcoin dev

I follow 395 ppl because I like who they are and I value what they post

Not for engagement farming

I have ~ 265 followers in return

I'm quite happy with that ratio, and the ratio of interactions to followers

It's better than it ever was on Xitter

And it's better than Bluesky so far

More importantly, when I interact with my social network it's not buried by some stupid engagement algorithm

That allows me to build meaningful social connections, which is my objective here

Quality not quantity

I post less original content than you do

If I followed 21 ppl that to me means there are 21 ppl whose thoughts I value quite highly

So I'd expect a level of engagement proportionate

If I was a public figure or if I posted engagement bait, particularly oriented toward the dominant topics of the network, I wouldn't be surprised to get a much higher engagement ratio

But a lot of the engagement those ppl receive is low quality

I doubt public figures like Jack and Lyn actually want that kind of engagement

Bluesky is much worse for engagement, particularly for replies

I see devs both within and outside the Bluesky team get the same or less engagement as you do, with 2-5x the number of followers on a network with ~ 1,000x the number of users

The chat thing... that's what I'd expect I think. If ppl are using a platform designed for group chat they'll return to that. Nostr native chat options are getting better tho.

So what are your objectives and how do you aim to achieve them? I think building a 'large' number of followers for anyone who doesn't fall into the public figure / engagement farming categories is going to be difficult in a social network that is bootstrapping.