Why not one number
"1.2M likes" is doing at least three jobs at once: how many people vouched for this, how hard it is to delete, and how fast it will load. Those come apart the moment anyone can buy servers.
Decenter publishes them separately. A consumer view may simplify - but the categories underneath are always inspectable, and this is that inspection surface.
Inspect an item
Loading items on this node...
What ranking is allowed to see
May consider
Must not consider
This list travels with the data itself, in every API response, so an implementer building a ranking module cannot claim they did not know.
How the counting works
| Counted per | Unit | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Push | account | A person said this should keep existing. One per account per item, forever, regardless of how many machines they run |
| Replica | node | A verified physical copy sits on a machine |
| Steward | operator | A party has agreed to carry storage for an account - and the account agreed back |
Which is why the marquee test works: one operator spins up a hundred node identities and mirrors a video onto all of them. Replicas go to 100. Operator diversity stays at 1. Push count does not move. Independent endorsement does not move. Ranking receives nothing.
Decenter prevents one server fleet from appearing as many Pushes.
Buying storage buys storage
Paying a steward for two terabytes of protection is legitimate and useful - your work survives harder. It buys custody. It does not buy reach, and the amount paid is on the list of things ranking is forbidden to read.
Honest caveat: paid capacity still improves delivery, and easier delivery correlates with reach. The protocol removes the direct purchase of endorsement. It does not pretend to remove every advantage money confers.