@AnnieG
Responding to your question: I sometimes do boost posts I make at odd hours so more people have a chance to see them when they are awake. Not the same post multiple times per day for an extended period, because that can get repetitive if it keeps showing up in your feed.

Sharing my setup and my reasoning: I keep my posts public so they show up on my local server, but in my settings, I have the setting to “feature my profile and posts in discovery algorithms” turned off (this means my posts are not going to appear in the Explore feed) and do not have text search enabled. Even still, not everything gets a response. For many posts, it is just one or two people who are liberal with the likes (thanks y’all).