Is There a Way To Know Who is Following Me? I Know Who I'm Following but Have No Idea Who's Following Me

[Clix Pix]

In the overall scheme of things not a big thing but I just got to wondering about this tonight and thought I'd ask after looking at my profile and not finding a list of who is following me.... I seem to remember having that information in the past -- maybe prior to Xenforo?

 

[Apple_Robert]

I don't believe it is currently possible, unless @arn can toggle a setting somewhere.

 

[Clix Pix]

It just seems odd to me that people might be following me and I have no idea of who they are or any way to prevent them from doing so if I should want to do that.... Yeah, I know this sounds a bit paranoid! I'm not really all that concerned but yeah, I really would like to have that information if someone on here is following my posts, who they are.....

I'm sure that Arn or Doctor Q or Ann or one of the mods will come along eventually with an answer one way or another.

 

[retta283]

Are you sure you looked in the right section of your profile? It should be visible under the About tab on your profile, as shown in this screenshot:

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank You, Retta 283! That was the one place I hadn't looked!!! Alrighty, then..... Most of those following me I know and there are a couple of unfamiliar names there, but no harm done..... At least I know now, and more importantly, I know where to check from time to time in the future to get that info!

 

[44267547]

What I would really like to see:

Is if somebody wants to ‘follow me’, I receive some type of like notice/invite that I have to manually accept to allow that person to follow me or not. Lately, I’ve had a number of spammers follow me, [and of course they end up suspended], but I’d rather not have them follow me, where I would have control over who is allowed to follow me on this site.

(Likely not doable with the Xeno-foro software, but something to think about.)

 

[annk]

I can understand wanting some level of control in regard to who follows a person's posts. But changing that parameter really wouldn't make much of a difference that I can see.

If it weren't possible to follow someone and I were interested in reading a particular user's posts, all I would have to do is go to that person's profile and check there for new posts. Granted, I wouldn't be notified when the person posted, but it wouldn't be much extra work for me at all to get the information if I really wanted it.

If a person is following my posts because s/he feels I write intelligent things or enjoys my posts, then it's all good. If however I get a feeling that another user is following my posts in order to harass me or troll, then I should report the problem so (the others on) the staff can take a look, discuss, and evaluate the situation. Following someone in order to dislike their posts, argue with them, etc isn't ok. And if anyone suspects a spammer is following them, let us know.

At the end of the day, comments posted here - with the exception of a very few sections - are available for anyone in the world to read. The benefits of the "following" function are outweighed by the disadvantages, I feel.

Not saying I wouldn't be in favor of it if it were possible - I haven't thought about it enough to have an opinion. It could be an interesting discussion. Just sayin' that it might not make a great deal of practical difference.

 

[44267547]

Oh, I definitely reported members following me on here before that are trolling/spam.

There was one specific member who created over —48— accounts to follow me because I debunked him in pretty much every argument we’ve ever had prior to his first ban, and everyone of his accounts were blacklisted on this site there after. So I can definitely differentiate who is genuine and who is not, but I generally would like to see some type of ‘permission’ acceptance before they’re allowed to follow me. But it’s not a big deal, it’s just a thought/idea.

 

[I7guy]

I seem to remember the old software showed who you were following and, who was following you.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Click on your avatar/account, go to profile, click on it, and then click on the "about" tab which will let you know who you follow, and also, who follows you.

 

[retta283]

I seem to remember the old software showed who you were following and, who was following you.

The current one practically does do the same thing, only that OP is not following anyone so it doesn't show. I'm not 100% sure how the old system worked but I think it should be about the same functionality here

 

[icanhazmac]

At first I was thinking "why bother blocking a follow", who cares, then this:

There was one specific member who created over —48— accounts to follow me because I debunked him in pretty much every argument we’ve ever had prior to his first ban

I can't believe someone bothered to do this? Even from mom's basement who has the time to put this much effort into trolling someone? What was the purpose of the accounts? To "thumbs down" your posts? I don't see any other point in creating that many shadow accounts.

 

[akash.nu]

Thank You, Retta 283! That was the one place I hadn't looked!!! Alrighty, then..... Most of those following me I know and there are a couple of unfamiliar names there, but no harm done..... At least I know now, and more importantly, I know where to check from time to time in the future to get that info!

So the question is - who really is following you?!

 

[Geepaw]

Who's watching me?

I'm just an average man with an average life
I work from nine to five, hey, hell, I pay the price
All I want is to be left alone in my average home
But why do I always feel like I'm in the Twilight zone and

I always feel like somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy ...

As Rockwell would say:

I think any "following" feature (not sure where this is on this on this website anyway) is kind of creepy but I guess it supposed to be like a Twitter "follow" I guess.

 

[Clix Pix]

Click on your avatar/account, go to profile, click on it, and then click on the "about" tab which will let you know who you follow, and also, who follows you.

I would know if I were following anyone, as I would've had to set that up.... As mentioned, I don't follow anyone so that means there is nothing to see there.

If I'm interested in seeing what someone else has written and I haven't noticed any posts from them for a while I simply do as Ann describes, go to their profile and look at their posted messages. Works for me! I really am not all that interested in getting notified each and every time someone posts on here, which is one big reason I don't bother following anyone.

 

[Mousse]

Who's watching me?

The Police.👮‍♂️

I'm just an average man with an average life
I work from nine to five, hey, hell, I pay the price
All I want is to be left alone in my average home
But why do I always feel like I'm in the Twilight zone and

I always feel like somebody's watching me
And I have no privacy ...

Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you

Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I'll be watching you

 

[svanstrom]

If it weren't possible to follow someone and I were interested in reading a particular user's posts, all I would have to do is go to that person's profile and check there for new posts. Granted, I wouldn't be notified when the person posted, but it wouldn't be much extra work for me at all to get the information if I really wanted it.

And even with the most limited of profiles people can always do this: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=site:forums.macrumors.com+"annk"

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I would know if I were following anyone, as I would've had to set that up.... As mentioned, I don't follow anyone so that means there is nothing to see there.

If I'm interested in seeing what someone else has written and I haven't noticed any posts from them for a while I simply do as Ann describes, go to their profile and look at their posted messages. Works for me! I really am not all that interested in getting notified each and every time someone posts on here, which is one big reason I don't bother following anyone.

I have disabled all email (and other) notifications apart from an occasional billet doux from the mods (which, for obvious reasons, cannot be switched off), and DMs.

Thus, if someone who follows me, or whom I follow, posts, I'm not notified by email, but, it still appears as a 'notification' on the site.

In the early days, I was innundated with emails (LinkedIn had a similarly irksome feature), and found that incrediby annoying; nowadays, standard notifications suffice, athough they do slow things down - for examle, if one arrives while you are composing a post to something different. Nonetheless, I'm pretty certain that it is possible to switch them off in the preferences of your own profile, and may consider doing so.

 

[Clix Pix]

I am on several different forums relating to my different interests, and if I were to permit email notifications I'd be swamped by them! That is one of the first things I make sure is not ticked "on" when setting up my profile after registering and joining a new site. Just on the off-chance that somehow things slip through anyway, though, and that has happened occasionally, I provide a different email address than my customary one that I use for personal email interactions. And, yes, definitely official mails from the admins/moderators of a site are permitted, which makes good sense.

As for notifications/alerts here, too, I have that turned off as well, as again I don't need to know that so-and-so is busily posting up a storm while I'm on here reading posts and posting. When I get around to checking the threads I "watch," which of course includes those in which I have posted, and in which presumably I'm interested, plenty of opportunity to see new posts by whomever at that time....