InitiallyFollowed

initiallyfollowed is a term used in the context of social networks, online platforms, and data models to indicate a following relationship that exists from an initial state, such as at account creation or at the start of an onboarding process. The term is not standardized and may appear in different codebases as initiallyfollowed, initially_followed, or in camelCase as InitiallyFollowed. It typically represents a boolean flag or a similar marker that distinguishes seed or pre-existing follows from those created later by the user.

In data modeling, initiallyfollowed is commonly employed to separate organically formed relationships from seed data provided during onboarding or testing. A typical implementation uses a boolean field or a metadata attribute on a follow relationship record to indicate whether the follow existed at the moment of account creation or session start. This distinction can aid analytics, onboarding optimization, and auditing by allowing analysts to compare growth driven by user action versus automatically seeded connections.

Onboarding and analytics use cases often rely on initiallyfollowed to understand user engagement. For example, a platform might seed a set of popular accounts as initiallyfollowed to demonstrate network activity, while keeping a separate log of user-initiated follows. Over time, the flag can be updated or preserved for historical accuracy, depending on how the platform handles seed data and migrations.

Notes and considerations include naming conventions, privacy implications, and data governance. Since initiallyfollowed is not a universal standard, its exact meaning and implementation can vary between systems, and developers should document how the flag is used within their data model.