bug: `GET /api/analytics/overview` — `totalFollows` counts follows *performed by* the user, not follows *received* by the user

[Srejoye]

Description:

The /api/analytics/overview endpoint exposes a totalFollows field that is presented to users alongside their profile views and unique viewer counts in the analytics dashboard. The field is computed as:

app.prisma.followLog.count({
  where: {
    followerId: userId,
    status: 'success',
  },
})

This query counts all FollowLog records where followerId === userId — i.e., follows that this user has performed on other people. The correct semantic for a profile analytics dashboard is the number of times other users followed this user — which would require filtering on targetUsername === currentUser.username (or an equivalent join).

The field name totalFollows combined with its placement next to totalViews and uniqueViewers creates a consistent "how many people engaged with me" narrative that this metric actively breaks. A user who has followed many other developers will see a high totalFollows count that is entirely about their own outbound activity, not their inbound audience.

Affected file: apps/backend/src/routes/analytics.ts (lines 41–45)

Steps to reproduce:

1. User A follows users B and C via the DevCard follow API.
2. No one follows User A.
3. User A opens the analytics dashboard — totalFollows reads 2, incorrectly implying two people followed them.

[Srejoye]

Hi, I'd like to work on this under GSSoC'26. Here is my technical understanding:

Root cause:
apps/backend/src/routes/analytics.ts L41–45 queries followLog with followerId: userId. The FollowLog schema stores outbound follow events — the actor is followerId, and the target is the targetUsername string field. To count inbound follows, the query must match against targetUsername (the current user's username) and status: 'success', not followerId.

Affected modules/files:

• apps/backend/src/routes/analytics.ts — primary bug site
• apps/backend/src/__tests__/analytics.test.ts — tests will need to cover both outbound and inbound follow counts

Proposed fix approach:

1. Retrieve request.user.username alongside request.user.id.
2. Replace the followLog.count filter with { targetUsername: username, status: 'success' }.
3. Consider renaming the field to totalInboundFollows in the response shape to make the intent unambiguous.
4. If outbound follow count is also needed, add it as a separate field totalOutboundFollows.

Regression/unit test considerations:

• Seed two users: one who has followed the authenticated user (inbound) and one who the authenticated user has followed (outbound).
• Assert totalFollows equals the count of inbound records only.
• Assert the existing outbound follow events do not inflate the count.

Requesting assignment. Thank you!