# Members who follow you - why?



## Masood

Hi
Excuse my ignorance.
What does it mean if someone follows you on the new forum?
If I prefer _not_ to be followed, can I block the follower?

Thanks


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## Peterdg

Members that follow you will receive an alert whenever you post something.

In your privacy settings, you can block either all people from following you or you can restrict it to people you follow yourself:

I can't paste an image in here (I don't know why: it used to work). But in the privacy settings, under "People who may", there is a setting "Receive your newsfeed". You can either unselect it (no one can follow you) or you can restrict it to "People you follow only".

I think that should do the trick.

EDIT: I think I may have found a way to insert the picture after all.


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## swift

@Peterdg I think unchecking the ‘Receive your news feed’ box won’t prevent people from following @Masood. They won’t be able to follow his activity through their News feed but they will still be able to make him a contact. In other words, they won’t be subscribed to Masood’s activity.

@Masood ‘People you follow’ is the new ‘Contacts’ or ‘Buddy list’. With vBulletin, adding people to one’s contacts was a discreet action—the new contact had no way to figure out when or by whom they had been added to someone’s buddy list. With XenForo, everything’s about social, which means that you’re constantly notified about pretty much anything the people you follow (formerly your contacts) do. It’s like subscribing to someone’s activity on Facebook.

With vBulletin, we were able to ‘restrict the display of some of the blocks on our profiles’:


Another privacy feature we used to have with vBulletin was the ‘Private Messaging’ settings. People who checked the _Only from Contacts and Moderators_ option will now engage in conversation only with the people they follow:



With XenForo, members can limit the audience of their activity (as explained by Peter), and they can choose to engage in conversation with people they follow only. But unchecking the _Receive your news feed_ box will not affect the _Start conversations with you_ settings.



That means that people will still be able to follow you if they choose to. And members who restricted the conversations to people they follow only will still be able to contact you if your privacy settings allow members or people you follow to do so.

So, the only way you can ‘block’ someone, so to speak, is restricting your news feed display AND your conversation settings.


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## Peterdg

swift said:


> @Peterdg I think unchecking the ‘Receive your news feed’ box won’t prevent people from following @Masood. They won’t be able to follow his activity through their News feed but they will still be able to make him a contact. In other words, they won’t be subscribed to Masood’s activity.


I think that is the main purpose of not wanting to be followed, isn't it? If someone puts me in his followers list but he doesn't receive any notification of what I'm doing, then what's the point in following me?


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## siares

Masood said:


> What does it mean if someone follows you on the new forum?



Dear Masood,
my reason for following people is that I enjoy the way they explain things in their posts; or I enjoy learning about things they ask.
That way when I see they posted, I can go to the thread (which I maybe wouldn't have opened otherwise, if I found its title non-engaging or I may have missed it) and read a clear explanation which makes the topic interesting; or learn about a specific topic I am interested in.)
The word following is making me a bit uncomfortable though.

E: comma


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## Masood

Thanks for the information, chaps.

I must be getting old...this whole notion of people following others all seems a bit creepy and pointless.


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## Masood

siares said:


> Dear Masood,
> my reason for following people is that I enjoy the way they explain things in their posts; or I enjoy learning about things they ask.
> That way when I see they posted, I can go to the thread (which I maybe wouldn't have opened otherwise, if I found its title non-engaging or I may have missed it) and read a clear explanation which makes the topic interesting; or learn about a specific topic I am interested in.)
> The word following is making me a bit uncomfortable though.
> 
> E: comma


OK, siares, that I can understand. Maybe the issue I have is with the term 'follow'.
Cheers


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## SimonTsai

Hello, everyone,

A few days ago, I followed some member, a Briton, presumably, because I found his explanation often helpful. However, yesterday he sent me a private message, as below; he lambasted my following him for being offensive:




Of course, then I cancelled my following that member and apologised to him. I am here just wondering:

Is it suggested that we ask whomever we want to follow whether or not they are happy to be followed before following them?
Would allowing members to confirm, ignore, or reject follower requests be an improvement to this forum?


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## Peterdg

The only one being offensive and FUCKING RUDE was the person sending this message to you. You can follow whoever you want. 

You can report this very offensive message to a moderator.


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## Cagey

I would like to update the information on what 'following' does:

[The system no longer sends a notification when someone you follow posts something.] *<-- Wrong!*.  You do get notifications in your news feed. Cagey. 

*< ----- > *When someone you are following is online, their name appears on a list of _'People you follow' _in the right hand column of the General forum page, but only if they have checked the "Show your online status" on their privacy settings. (You will find the privacy settings by clicking on _'Privacy'_ in the drop-down menu under your name at the top right of this page.)

A side note:
Just below _Show your status_ is another option: _Show your current activity._
If this is checked, the information will be on the pop-up menu that appears when you click a member's name on the post or below their avatar. It also appears in their profile page.  It will say, for instance: "_Viewing thread Going On" _or "_Viewing forum English Only." _
Any member who is signed on can see this. It has nothing to do with whether or not they are following you.
If you don't want this information to be available, make certain that _'Show your current activity'_ is not checked.​A side note: When you add someone to the list of people you follow, they will get a notice.  They will not be notified if you take them off your list.


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## SimonTsai

Thank you, @Peterdg, for letting me know that I am not that rude. But I would not have the message reported because I think that he was really feeling offended.

@Cagey, am I wrong to think that you will see what members that you follow comment or post in the News Feed?

By the way, I told that member that as requested, I unfollowed him.


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## Cagey

SimonTsai said:


> @Cagey, am I wrong to think that you will see what members that you follow comment or post in the News Feed?


No, the system doesn't alert you to posts anymore.  It did at the beginning, but people didn't like it.

As I said above, the only thing it does is let you see when the person is online.

*Oops!* I'll take it back. Posts by the people you follow will appear in your newsfeed.
I think the person who felt offended may have misunderstood that 'following' would do. In any case, most people would not be so upset. Many people would understand it as expressing a friendly interest, as Siares explains above.  Other people are very concerned about privacy, but they can adjust their 'Privacy' settings so that other people won't know whether they are online and what they are doing.


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## velisarius

SimonTsai said:


> Hello, everyone,
> 
> A few days ago, I followed some member, a Briton, presumably, because I found his explanation often helpful. However, yesterday he sent me a private message, as below; he lambasted my following him for being offensive:
> 
> View attachment 28063​
> Of course, then I cancelled my following that member and apologised to him. I am here just wondering:
> 
> Is it suggested that we ask whomever we want to follow whether or not they are happy to be followed before following them?
> Would allowing members to confirm, ignore, or reject follower requests be an improvement to this forum?



I'm amazed! I think that person must belong to the  small minority of those who are even less familiar with social media mores than I am.

I'll let you into a secret: when I see that a member has started "following" me, I feel quite flattered. It means that they were impressed with my immense knowledge and wisdom (doesn't it?)

It's  a horrible term though, and I agree with siares that the idea of being "followed" feels distinctly creepy.

I only follow One, who shall not be named.


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## Stoggler

SimonTsai said:


> Hello, everyone,
> 
> A few days ago, I followed some member, a Briton, presumably, because I found his explanation often helpful. However, yesterday he sent me a private message, as below; he lambasted my following him for being offensive:
> 
> View attachment 28063​
> Of course, then I cancelled my following that member and apologised to him. I am here just wondering:
> 
> Is it suggested that we ask whomever we want to follow whether or not they are happy to be followed before following them?
> Would allowing members to confirm, ignore, or reject follower requests be an improvement to this forum?



My impression of that message is how utterly awful he/she was to send it to you.  Following someone on this forum is part and parcel of the functionality.  There’s nothing wrong per se in following someone, it serves a purpose.  By being a member of the forum you agree to terms and conditions, which means accepting what the functionality of the forum can and can’t do.  The problem lies with the individual who took umbrage with you.


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## DonnyB

velisarius said:


> I'll let you into a secret: when I see that a member has started "following" me, I feel quite flattered. It means that they were impressed with my immense knowledge and wisdom (doesn't it?)


Me too, I must admit I kinda like the idea of having my little fan club "following" me, hanging on my every word.  

However, being churlish enough not to return the compliment, I don't know from personal experience what "following" someone actually _does_.  I believe it simply automates the process of seeing what someone has posted (which in my case is quite possibly a big disappointment on occasion) but as far as I know my "followers" don't get to see any more of me than anyone else does, so I can't altogether see why it's really anything to get hot under the collar about.


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## velisarius

DonnyB said:


> I can't altogether see why it's really anything to get hot under the collar about.



Exactly. 

If you follow someone, it's a little easier to find all their recent posts (by clicking on "your news feed") - otherwise, you might not have noticed them. You can find someone else's posts anyway, through the search function, and that is true even if they have blocked others from viewing their profile.

If someone has blocked access to their profile, perhaps following them would seem intrusive - perhaps it isn't even possible. Still, once your posts are out there you can't stop people from finding them and viewing them.


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## Barque

SimonTsai said:


> But I would not have the message reported because I think that he was really feeling offended.


If I were you, I'd report it. As others have said, "following" people is a forum feature offered to members and you aren't obliged to ask his permission to do so. In any case, there was no need for the language he used or the racist generalisation he made at the end.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Hi, I'd prefer that others not know my online status or current activity and so left the boxes for 'Show your current activity' and 'Show your online status' unchecked under 'Privacy', as I  did the one for 'Show online status' at the bottom left of my Profile Page. When I click on my username, though, I read "ain'ttranslationfun? was last seen: xxxx..." Why is this?

I also note that we can see whom we're following (which we presumably know already) but not "Who is following you', which I for one would like to know.

Looks like Mike's got his work cut out for him!


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## Peterdg

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> Why is this?


When you look at your own profile, the forum SW will give that information but it is not visible to other members. The same is true for the little green flag that you can see on your avatar in front of posts and that indicates you are online. That is also only visible to you when you left "Show online status" unchecked.

It is true you cannot see who is following you, but if I'm not mistaken, then you can see if a particular member is following you. When you click that member's avatar, you get a frame that lists some of that member's attributes. It used to say if that member is following you. (I don't know if it still does that, but it used to do that).

If you want, we can test it. You can follow me; then let me know and I will check if I can see that. (You can afterwards unfollow me, if you want).


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## DonnyB

Peterdg said:


> It is true you cannot see who is following you, but if I'm not mistaken, then you can see if a particular member is following you. When you click that member's avatar, you get a frame that lists some of that member's attributes. It used to say if that member is following you. (I don't know if it still does that, but it used to do that).


Yes, you can see if someone is following you.  If you hover with your mouse over the "follow" link on someone's profile, you get a pop-up message over the top "[Member's name] is/is not following you".


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## Peterdg

DonnyB said:


> Yes, you can see if someone is following you.  If you hover with your mouse over the "follow" link on someone's profile, you get a pop-up message over the top "[Member's name] is/is not following you".


Right. I forgot how to see it but I did remember there was a way. I just didn't remember you had to hover over that "follow" link. Thanks for the info.


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