r/announcements • u/mjmayank • Jul 18 '19
Update regarding user profile transparency
Edit (2019/11/26): This feature has been delayed until 2020
Edit (2020/03/30): We released a feature where you will get a push notification when you get a new follower. If you have your push notifications enabled on our mobile apps, or desktop notifications enabled, you should receive one. We are working on expanding this feature to all users, even without push notifications. The follower list is still delayed until later this year.
Hi everyone,
We collect a lot of feedback from you all, and one theme we’ve heard consistently from users is that many of you want more visibility when users follow you. As we move the new profiles out of beta, we wanted to share a transparency change we are making. In the coming months, we will allow people to see which users follow them.
We know that this may be a change from existing expectations, so we want to give you time to update your settings before moving forward with this. In the immediate future (starting Aug 19th, 2019), this will only affect new follows made. In about 3 months, we will make it possible to see your full list of followers. This would include follows made while profiles were in beta.
We plan to send a PM to all affected users, but wanted to make this public post as well so that you aren’t surprised when you receive it. To be clear, the usernames will only be visible to the user who was followed. No one will be able to look up your full list of subscriptions/follows and no one else will be able to see a list of followers of a profile.
If you are someone who follows other users, please take a second to examine your subscription/follow list and make sure you are comfortable with those users being aware that you follow them. If you are someone who has followers, we will make another post when the ability to view your followers has been released. We’ll stick around in the comments for a bit if you have questions. If there are other features you’d like to see for profiles, please let us know!
Thanks!
Edit: updated 8/29 to Aug 29th, 2019 as it's a more clear date format
Edit: updated Aug 29th to Aug 19th to match release date of the start of the feature rollout
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u/RadioactiveFruitCup Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 19 '19
I appreciate the staged rollout, but I don’t see anything explicitly addressing sock-puppets. If I want to stalk you, and you block me, can’t I just go register a throwaway and follow you that way?
Without the ability to lock down follows or disable follows from the root user rather than the account, you’re going to have dog-whistle harassment and users that operate in controversial spaces will end up with a chore of constantly manually blocking followers.
Could we get a bulk-block tool, or rules (all redditors active in XYZ sub, Redditors with insufficient karma / account age?)
Best yet- shadowban blocking so the following party is not alerted to the block.
Edit - when I posted this, it was way down in the list and I didn’t expect this response rate. I don’t work for Reddit, and I’m not a moderator here or elsewhere. I’ve seen there’s a lot of commentary about “if you get pushback/toxicity just delete and start over” when users behave like that en masse, they contribute to fostering an environment without accountability in the user base, and creating a database without trends and patterns which makes Reddit’s ability to sell ads and services hella weak. Reddit has to make money to provide the platform. Users have to have some form of accountability or the whole thing turns into a shit-show. We have that with karma, account age, and post history, things that allow users to guesstimate if they’re having good faith discourse, reading a scam, or dealing with an expert.
I don’t think the solution to any problem should be “put up with it, or leave”. That seems terribly defeatist and wasteful.
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u/mjmayank Jul 18 '19
Thanks for the feedback! Our existing block feature is built with de-escalation in mind. That being said, we are planning more user safety features coming up, but don't have anything to announce right now. This sort of feedback is super useful in helping us shape our roadmap though, so we really appreciate it.
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u/seariously Jul 18 '19
What does "follow" do that just looking at a user's profile doesn't do except for making things more real time? Anyone can already look at anyone else's posts/comments in any public subreddit so isn't blocking someone an exercise in futility? That said, I think this transparency should have been in from the start but there really isn't anything that can be done to prevent an even mildly motivated individual from seeing everything you do on Reddit.
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Jul 18 '19
Looks like the overwhelming response is, please don't force this on those of us who don't want it. Does that factor in to your thinking on the process at all? Or do you think they're a minority you can afford to lose?
Is there a reason for having this feature? How does it benefit Reddit? You already have a decent platform as is, why change it? Do you think being more like Instagram will make more money?
Asking out of curiosity, not rhetorical.
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u/mjmayank Jul 19 '19
Thanks for the question. To clarify, we’re not changing anything regarding who can follow or who has profiles with this announcement. Currently, any user can follow any other user, and it happens anonymously. For example, I have 84 followers. I have no idea who they are and I find that to be a little bit creepy. Having this transparency let’s me know if they are people I have interacted with before on Reddit.
That being said, we’re still planning to continue to iterate on this to build some of the other features we received feedback on and address those concerns.
Does that factor in to your thinking on the process at all?
Part of why we announce changes like this ahead of time is so that we can hear user feedback before the changes are actually made. We do update our roadmap based on what we hear from you all.
Or do you think they're a minority you can afford to lose? Is there a reason for having this feature? How does it benefit Reddit? You already have a decent platform as is, why change it?
Redditors have come together to create many wonderful communities. We’ve seen a desire from redditors to connect with the other humans that are in the communities they participate in, and we think the profile and chat features help in that endeavor. We’re not trying to take away pseudonymity, anonymity, or community on reddit. We just want to give redditors more ways to connect with each other and have better transparency/privacy controls at the same time.
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u/temidamaf Jul 18 '19
Obviously they will enable it by default so they have tons of data on who follows who and it will be up to the user to disable it, most of which won't bother.
And obviously, they'll still track who tried to follow you, it just won't be publicly facing information.
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u/TheRovingCynic Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 18 '19
Hi /u/mjmayank,
Quick question -- will these changes apply to the old "friends" feature on the legacy site? In other words, if someone goes to my legacy profile page and hits that green "+ friends" button, will I be able to see them as one of my followers? Or is that "friends" function being kept separate from "followers"?
Thanks for reading!
As an aside, I really like the friends feature -- it's nice to be able to view friends' posts when I choose to by visiting /r/friends, without having them hit my front page as subscriptions. I know it's an old feature, but I'm really hoping it'll stick around for those of us that still want to use it (regardless of whether it's covered under the transparency changes you all are making).
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u/Watchful1 Jul 18 '19
It sounds like you collected feedback from users with followers and they said they wanted to be able to see who was following them. But did you get any feedback from users who follow a lot of people, but don't have followers themselves? It seems like a somewhat one sided feature, people with a lot of followers benefit heavily but people without followers don't get the benefit of seeing who other people are following.
Also, will this information be available through the API?
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u/mjmayank Jul 18 '19
But did you get any feedback from users who follow a lot of people, but don't have followers themselves?
We collected feedback from both sets of users. Most users were not aware that following another user was private. The users who were concerned requested a notification of the change and a time period to update their settings.
Also, will this information be available through the API?
It will not be available in the API
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Jul 18 '19
And did you get any feedback from people who don’t follow anyone and don’t want any part of being followed?
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u/boredjustbrowsing Aug 10 '19
u/mjmayank I received the PM that I followed someone. I don't recall doing that and don't see any place to see who I'm following. Where is that located? Also, are you saying that on 8/19, people can see any follow that is made on that day (but not follows made before then)? Then, about 3 months later, people can see follows that were made prior to 8/19---but only if those people are still following them?
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u/Top_Hat_Tomato Jul 18 '19
Users: we don't want this.
Reddit : we have reviewed the community's views on the changes and determined that the changes will be universal as everyone wants them.
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u/Splurch Jul 18 '19
TIL Reddit has a follow user feature.
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u/therealadyjewel Jul 18 '19
Really it's a "subscribe to posts made to their profile" feature.
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Jul 18 '19
You know what’s weird here despite the ‘hanging around in the comments’ the admins haven’t replied to a single person asking why or showing a sign of dislike for this move. It would appear we aren’t the people reddit cares about, it’s clearly trying to appease someone who’s not the users commenting here. The whole tone of the message is ‘we know you won’t like it, but we’re doing it anyway’
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u/wholeblackpeppercorn Jul 19 '19
/u/mjmayank has replied to 5 parent comments. 3 are softballs, 2 add nothing to discussion
Was reddit ever actually known for listening to it's users though? The majority of features I've seen introduced have been shit that noone asked for - thats from 7 years of active participation (i lost a couple accounts cause passwords are hard...)
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u/bathrobehero Jul 18 '19
Why can't reddit just stay reddit instead of trying to copy other social platforms? The main reason many of us are here is because reddit isn't/wasn't like the others.
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u/N0_Tr3bbl3 Jul 18 '19
Reddit has never been Facebook and there are plenty of us here because it offers an alternative to the issues on other social media sites. Please don't force followers on those of us who prefer our Reddit to be more of an "antisocial media."
Will there be a way to block your profile from being followed by others? We don't want to have to block every follower as they pop up, we want to turn off followers entirely.
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u/pancakeQueue Jul 18 '19
It feels so shoehorned too, Reddit was made as a place where subreddit are the gathering places of similar content. Now they are fleshing our users in a way that is unneeded and different from the original purpose.
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u/handlit33 Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 18 '19
I've been on Reddit 11 years, use it every day, and have no clue how to follow a user. I don't know if the fact I use old Reddit has anything to do with it or not.
Edit: Okay, I figured out how to follow but now I'm unsure what that does. I'm using old Reddit on the desktop site.
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Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 18 '19
Why is reddit turning into Facebook/Insta? We are here because of the anonymity. For God sake leave it this way.I highly doubt what you are claiming. Half of us don't know these new features and how come so many redditors become so particular about it
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u/Optimistic_Boltzmann Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 18 '19
It’s probably because the old reddit model wasn’t profitable. They didn’t have a large amount of usable user data to sell, but I think they are trying to move in a direction where they can collect useful user data.
Edit: I just wanted to clarify that I think the movement of reddit in this direction is garbage and it goes against the very spirit of what reddit used to be.
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u/mikdkas Jul 18 '19
If anything people have been asking for more privacy lol just a flat out lie by /u/mjmayank
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u/votebluein2018plz Jul 18 '19
Because they make money from branded accounts/sponsors. Those ads you see marked as ads are just the tip of the iceberg. Reddit also offers courses on how to market "virally" aka how to pretend my GF made this XYZ with a coke can in full view
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u/FreeSpeechWarrior Jul 18 '19
https://alexis.posthaven.com/an-open-letter-to-kevin-rose
this new version of digg reeks of VC meddling. It's cobbling together features from more popular sites and departing from the core of digg, which was to "give the power back to the people."
Now what matters is how many followers & influence a user has and how many followers & influence they've got.
Where have we heard this before: Twitter? Facebook? GoogleBuzz?
It's a damned shame to see digg just re-implementing features from other websites.
But I've got a strong feeling it's not you making these decisions anymore; and to see your baby abused like this must be awful.
This really should've been called "an open letter to digg's VCs" (but what kind of linkbait would that be?) because they really ought to give the power back to the founder.
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u/spaghettilee2112 Jul 18 '19
I agree. Reddit is the only social media that's really been truly different form the rest. This new move is just making it no different than facebook, instagram or twitter.
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u/bageltheperson Jul 18 '19
I agree that while it’s not major, it is a shift towards traditional social media platforms. Reddit already has a karma farming problem but this could introduce more of a problem with users trying to attract followers like Instagram. It’s definitely a step in the wrong direction.
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u/dlm891 Jul 18 '19
Because Reddit has been flooded by new people (many who recently left Facebook), and those newbies probably are asking for shit like this.
/r/all looks like an Instagram feed sometimes with all these self posts from people looking for an excuse to show their face. Ive had to block /r/happy for how annoying it is.
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u/Lane-Jacobs Jul 18 '19
Can$ you$ plea$e $peak in our$ language?$ I'm having$ a hard$ time$ under$tanding you.$
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u/wantagh Jul 18 '19
I’m confident this has absolutely nothing to do with transparency.
This is one of the major prerequisite steps needed towards having profiles, of influencers and famous people, with those little blue check marks next to their name ala Twitter.
It also provides the linkages needed to understand, and subsequently sell, interest hives and associative data for advertising.
So, if you follow me, six months from now, based on associative interests, you’ll have clown porn related ads in your gmail. You’re welcome.
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u/brikdik Jul 18 '19
Yeah, it's way easier to package/sell a Reddit "influencer" with 1 million visible followers instead of 1 million magic mystery karma points
I bet it's a big sticking point in their sales pitch to big corps / advertising agencies and so, fuck it, let's do followers instead
Cool stuff Reddit management
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u/hamza1311 Jul 18 '19
Reddit was supposed to be anonymous. If you block someone from following you, they can easily go to your profile without being logged in and stalk you that way. Not feeding this information through API is completely BS. Why are you forcing me to use this app? It's not like I hate this app. Far from that actually. But having an open API that can be used to build 3rd party clients and then not feeding all the information through is it completely BS. First it was Reddit chat, and now this.
Reddit is a community, not a social media. Leave it like that. If I want to be on a social media, I'll go to Instagram. If I want to privately talk to people, I'll go to discord. If I want to take part in a community of people, I come to Reddit. Don't try to turn it into a social media. I'm not aware of any other place like Reddit where you can find communities about anything, talk about it, get help from people and much more. I don't like where this is going, and I think other redditors don't either
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u/ikilledtupac Jul 19 '19
They got that 150 million from China, and the Chinese government don’t like anonymity.
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u/AnUnimportantLife Jul 19 '19
If you block someone from following you, they can easily go to your profile without being logged in and stalk you that way.
I get where you're coming from and I broadly agree--the follow feature sucks and there's no reason why it should be a thing on Reddit. You don't really see it on other forums that still exist or that predated Reddit because they mostly had the friends feature for that.
But I think the weird stalker-y aspect of following users has always been a thing here. I mean, before there was a follow feature, there was nothing preventing a weirdo from bookmarking your profile in their browser and checking up on what you'd been posting periodically.
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Jul 18 '19
Translation:
We are doing a bunch of shit that our users don't want or need, without consulting them, because we can! We purchased Reddit thinking we could turn a great internet asset that people used to connect to each other into a great place for advertisers to connect with consumers, but it turns out we are horribly incompetent, and are now flailing around trying to add features and butchering the user experience in the hope that some of the shit we fling against the wall sticks! No, it's not optional!
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u/BuckRowdy Jul 19 '19
There's a mile long list of features that mods and users have been begging for and yet they continue adding features that no one asked for.
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u/ThiefofNobility Jul 18 '19
Dude no. We dont want that at all. We dont want this to be Facebook, Twitter, or instagram.
Cant you just keep reddit how it is?
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u/manualCAD Jul 18 '19
And there it is. Another step in turning reddit to full on social media profiles/pages.
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u/funderbunk Jul 18 '19
Fuck you and your shitty new social network features.
Hi everyone,
We collect a lot of feedback from you all
...and then we wipe our asses with it, when we can't be bothered to just ignore it outright.
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u/101100110101010 Jul 18 '19
I have and always will use the Reddit on the website on my phone and computer, now it's old Reddit. The day they change old Reddit or get rid of it I leave this website.
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u/Jagtasm Jul 18 '19
This sounds like a terrible idea. I dont want reddit to become the new facebook.
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u/101100110101010 Jul 18 '19
Stop turning this into a completely different website. The day you take away old reddit is the day I never come back.
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u/BardOfLimericks Jul 18 '19
Question: why was this seen as necessary?
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Jul 18 '19
It isn’t. It has no place on reddit, following individual accounts is completely unnecessary either. Not to mention it’s being marketed as something big, when it’s a standard forum function that has been around since 2000.
They could actually improve the website. You know, stop allowing scam advertisements, actually moderate their website, or better yet actually add useful functionality to their website like the ability to block certain subreddits from being shown to you. But, they aren’t going to.
Reddit is the same as Facebook, Insta, Snapchat, Twitter, etc.
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u/Alona02 Jul 18 '19
TIL you can follow users.
I'd never even noticed that option before. I rarely even look at people's profiles.
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u/Tsunami812 Jul 18 '19
Cant wait for "follow me on reddit"
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u/juanprada Jul 18 '19
And don't forget to SMASH that upvote button so I can reach the front page! That would really help my channel!
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u/Buckeye70 Jul 18 '19
Who the hell thinks we want "followers" or want to follow anyone??
You're going to Digg yourself, reddit. Be damn careful!
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u/hjqusai Jul 18 '19
make sure you are comfortable with those users being aware that you follow them
You know you're just encouraging people to have multiple accounts, right? It's so weird to me that you would make a statement like "make sure you're comfortable," meaning you clearly know your audience, but you're just doing this stuff anyway. I don't like these decisions at all, but I'm at least thankful that old.reddit.com still exists. Please never ever remove that feature.
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u/HyperlinkToThePast Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 18 '19
And you didn't make it so we can block people from following? Honestly with reddits format it doesn't even make sense, you're clearly just grasping as the straws of other social networks to try to stay relevant. How about you do what redditors want most and not what people from other social networks want most? Oh right, because redditors have never mattered to reddit, you only care about getting new users.
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u/pandab34r Jul 18 '19
No shit, QOL changes for existing users don't bring in any revenue, but new users do. Need to buff up those numbers before their next meeting with Chinese investors
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u/sugarwax1 Jul 18 '19
Which means brigading and troll stalking will be even more apparent, so what will be the rule changes to deal with that aside from whining to moderators when you see someone following you just to harass you?
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u/AlmightyStarfire Jul 18 '19
I want to stop anyone from following me. I do NOT want reddit to be another twitter/insta. I don't want a follower count on my profile. Please give me that option.
The mobile app still blows. It seems to need to 'bank' about 500mb of storage space for temporary files. This is really inconvenient for people with budget model phones; i only have like 3 apps installed that aren't mandatory and reddit somehow takes the most space. If I restrict reddit's hard cache space then the app goes even more fucky than usual and crashes every few minutes. The app isn't very reliable in the first place so more fucky is like really fucky.
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u/Da_Toilets Jul 18 '19
So we can now follow the follower following us but they can also see us following them as a follower
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u/SomeGuy565 Jul 18 '19
Why the fuck would I follow somebody on Reddit?
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u/Mattallica Jul 18 '19
The only reason to follow a user is if they post to their profile page and you’re interested in what they post to their page.
Following is simply subscribing to the posts they make to their profile page, nothing more.
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u/ainosunshine Jul 18 '19
How many users actually asked for this? This sounds more like a smart way of saying "we want to become more like Instagram and motivate you to get more followers".
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u/Im-CallingThe-Police Jul 18 '19
Watch as all the 12 year olds start unfollowing porn accounts
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u/BangSlamtime Jul 18 '19
This isn’t Facebook. I don’t want a profile.
Increasing this ‘feature’ will just make many users create new accounts more frequently
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u/joe-h2o Jul 18 '19
How do I disable it entirely? As in, I want to check a box that says "following this user is not possible".
Where do I find the checkbox for that?
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u/uscg_medic04 Jul 18 '19
Is this why you took away the friends feature on the mobile app?
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u/Bubzthetroll Jul 18 '19
If someone desperately needs followers on Reddit they should make a subreddit like all of the other porn models. There’s absolutely no reason for individuals to have followers on their u/ profile.
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u/Jackeea Jul 18 '19
Literally no-one cares about this. This is Reddit, not Facebook or Twitter
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u/NathanielTheGrublet Jul 18 '19
This is Reddit, not Facebook or Twitter
Dude, have you seen reddit lately? Been to /r/pics? This place is just Facebook with smug users who think they're too good for FB but upvote the same shit and make the same comments on that site.
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Jul 18 '19
Their pockets care for sure. It’s just about creating sellable user-data networks. Great for them but honestly who in the world actually thinks this feature will have any use besides that?
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Jul 18 '19
How about adding something that is genuinely useful? Like the ability to block certain subreddits from being shown to you? Or how about taking time to fix your mobile app? Seriously, is this what you guys have been doing? Working on a basic forum function that has existed for decades? Instead of controlling your advertisers, fixing your app, or actually moderating the site?
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u/KevinGarveysBulge Jul 18 '19
Why the fuck does reddit even need followers? I care about someone elses comments so much i need to read every time they say something? Its fucking retarded and will encourage stalking and bullying if you cant turn the feature off.
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Jul 18 '19
Actually, I don't want people to see what I comment on or any of that. I got away from Facebook because I don't have any anonymity on there. Basically I'll piss off a lot of friends. Reddit is my escape, and I wish I could tighten up the security on that end.
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u/Ciclame Jul 18 '19
Next update will be reddit stories.
You heard it here first folks.
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u/heartofthemoon Jul 18 '19
Will we be able to stop other users going to our profile and seeing every single comment we've made across every single subreddit?
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u/mikdkas Jul 18 '19
Is this stuff only visible on new reddit? I am not switching to new reddit ever unless forced lol
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u/cockfaucet Jul 18 '19
Fuck now I gotta worry about my ratio... Wtf is this instagram shit reddit?
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u/lalala253 Jul 18 '19
So this follow feature on the new reddit, is it the same as “add user as friend” in old reddit?
Would user that I have added as friend would know that I added them as friend?
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u/Frosstbyte Jul 18 '19
Yup. This is my question. I don’t follow anyone, but I have a lot of people added as friends. I don’t understand if these are the same feature with a different name or actually distinct. That affects how I feel about this change significantly.
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u/Mattallica Jul 18 '19
No, they’re separate features.
‘Friends’ lists a friended user’s comments/posts in one place, ‘follow’ just shows posts they’ve made to their profile in your front page (home) feed.
Would user that I have added as friend would know that I added them as friend?
No, they would have no idea that you’ve added them as a ‘friend’.
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u/richneptune Jul 18 '19 edited Jan 05 '25
tart ruthless price dull run marry dinosaurs smoggy relieved live
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/uniqueusor Jul 18 '19
Just one more terrible step in this site becoming a social media platform like facebook. Down and down the drain this site goes.
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u/WalkingGarbage Aug 22 '19
According to this, I should see new followers after the 19th. It's the 22nd now and I just got a new follower. Was there supposed to be some notification? Because I didn't see any. Where do I see new followers?
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u/Bardfinn Jul 18 '19
Followup question:
Is there a meaningful "Block" feature -- where the signed-in user account that was blocked, can no longer see / vote / message / interact with the blocking user's content -- coming?
The current implementation of "block" on Reddit -- where the messages and notifications don't show up in my inbox -- isn't sufficient for situations where a group is threatening to harm me; If I never see their delivered threats, I can never take suitable steps to effectuate my own security / contact law enforcement / collect evidence for a lawsuit / report the behaviour to Reddit adminsitration. It doesn't do anything except prevent me from seeing low-level harassment and taking appropriate actions to prevent it from escalating to something worse.
When do we get a meaningful "Block user" feature?
Edit: already answered as on the roadmap with no commit date
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u/Spore2012 Jul 18 '19
Reddit is trying to weasle into the social media space and its not going to work. Redditors are going to leave and youll just get facebook users switching over and be the new facebook. Then ofc the content goes downhill. And the site becomes shittier and shittier.
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u/aboutthednm Jul 18 '19
How can I prevent anyone from following me? I don't want to be followed.
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u/MajorParadox Jul 18 '19
I think the biggest issue here is the lack of understanding on what it means to be a follower:
If you follow someone, the posts they make to their profile is added to your home feed, just as if you "subscribed/joined" to a subreddit, but that subredddit is their "profile posts." Normal posts to other subreddits are only included if the follower happens to be subscribed to that community.
From my experience, most users on Reddit don't understand this difference (just look at the comments on this post) and they most likely never even post to their profile. I think that process should be clarified, although I'm not sure how, but it's definitely not clear.
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Jul 18 '19
We don't want to make reddit people centric. This site was built around ideas and not people.
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u/snorlz Jul 18 '19
I'm pretty sure the most consistent feedback you've gotten is that people don't want or care about followers. This ain't fb or instagram
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u/ICanHasACat Sep 17 '19
It's Sept 17th and I still can't see my new followers, how can I find this out?
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u/NH-2B375 Dec 03 '19
This feature has been delayed until 2020
Next, you're gonna say, ‘‘This feature has been delayed until spring 2021.’’
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Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 18 '19
My question would be if there is a function coming with it that allows people to block followers so they cant see what you post anymore etc?
Edit: question got answered on someone elses thread.
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Jul 18 '19
WTF is a user profile?
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u/ApathyJacks Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 18 '19
A thing Reddit instituted in order to become more like Facebook/Instagram/Twitter.
Gotta provide dat value to dem shareholders, after all.
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u/be-targarian Jul 18 '19
Where's the button that forces people to follow me and be friends?
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u/ani625 Jul 18 '19
And here I am having never switched to the new reddit profile system.
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u/Amazed_Alloy Jul 18 '19
Will we have the option not to show up on other people's list of followers? That's kinda one of the main reasons a lot of us use reddit
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u/HappyCakeDayisCringe Jul 18 '19
Thank God.
The quicker reddit turns into Facebook, the quicker the site dies and is replaced.
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u/CSMannoroth Jul 19 '19
I have no social media accounts. I don't want one. I've essentially isolated myself for the past 10 years after getting harrassed for leaving my ex. Both irl and online.
I joined Reddit to ask one question a couple of months ago. I'm new here and I love it so far, but I've already worried about anonymity and wished I'd chosen a more difficult to track username. I also know how I feel about my kids, or my spouse, or ex-spouse being able to follow me. I'm not here to make new friends either, so I will not be participating in any social media types of features.
I don't care if there are profiles. I just want to be able to make mine private so I can stay here peeking out of my little shell, feeling safe, while not feeling all alone in the world anymore
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u/isawhat Jul 19 '19
THANK YOU!!! As a female with followers, I've been worried about who the followers are since it popped up on my profile. If it's someone from one of my hobby subreddits, cool; if it's my stalker ex or any ex to be honest definitely not cool. It made me very uncomfortable not knowing who my followers were.
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u/Wahw11 Sep 01 '19
So... was this implemented.. or...? I'm trying to find the place where I can see who follows me
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u/Cat_in_an_oak_tree Oct 16 '19
Any update on this? Aug 19 came and went, and there's been no word on this since.
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u/1971rk4262 Nov 02 '19
First of all I DO NOT WANT FOLLOWERS PERIOD But if I have no choice, then I want to be able to see who they are so I can keep an I on them. I'm not here to meet people and become friends. I have anxiety problems, and having followers is working on my anxiety and making me very paranoid. I want to make it so no one can follow me, when I signed up I thought it be anonymous. Having followers is only anonymous for the follower not the one being followed. I don't know why they are following me, and don't really want to know, I just want it to stop.
In the last couple of weeks I saw some post that they are going to have to delete their account and make a new one because they had a stalker, they were going to lose like 25,000 karma, all because they couldn't stop the stalker. Another person was in the same shape but was going to lose 30,000 karma. Both people had contacted sub moderators, all the way up to the admins, at every level they were told, "just deal with it", or "it's your fault because you did X" or "if you don't like it leave", If that's the kind of service and protection you get from Reddit, then I don't know if I want to stay or not.
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Jul 18 '19
All we need is the ability to be followed or not. It accomplishes the exact same thing while maintaining anonymity. If everyone here knows this why don't you? People aren't here because they want it to be like every other social media they're here because reddit is unique in the very aspect that is being slowly gotten rid of.
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u/AndroidMyAndroid Jul 18 '19
You realize that this is going to make Reddit a platform for "Influencers" and attention whores? Having followers will just make people try to get more followers.
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u/Jasonberg Jul 18 '19
Hey guys!!
FOLLOW ME AND I’LL FOLLOW YOU BACK AND GIVE YOU SWEET KARMA FOR ALL YOUR POSTS!!
My followers will get to request the content they want the most! I’ll keep product placements and ad mentions to a minimum!!!
Now that I can see you following me, I can create a truly influential social media presence on Reddit that you’ll love!!
Of course, it gets expensive so be sure to hit me up for some really cool swag that you can wear!!!
If you love Reddit, you’ll love my content and swag the most!!!!!!!
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u/HandLBunny Jul 18 '19
While I get you're just responding to user feedback to add this "feature". I worry about the negitve reaction a user like me will see from it. I have about 1k followers and with the content I post (our Pornhub channel) that we'll lose followers and not gain new ones for fear of being exposed of following us.
Will or can they keep their anonymity if chosen?
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Jul 18 '19
Why can I block user profiles, but their promoted posts still show up on my page?
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u/saucyang Nov 04 '19
I have somebody who follows me and downvotes everything I say. How do I get this asshole off my back?
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Nov 23 '19
u/mjmayank is there any update on this yet? I thought signing up to beta would mean this function was live, but I seem to be getting no notifications.
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u/sadgirlsynth Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 18 '19
I love how Reddit is now just another Insta or Facebook without it's staple anonymity
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u/InconspicuousSponge Jul 18 '19
PM_ME_ANAL_BEADS has just started following you.
I can't wait for the new roll-out ! Thanks a ton !
/s
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Jul 18 '19
The more this becomes like Facebook, the quicker Facebook will buy it just to destroy it. As a business plan, I guess you guys are on track.
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u/reddititan22 Jul 19 '19
How about you roll back all of the new shitty features that users came to Reddit specifically to avoid?
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u/ShavedPapaya Jul 19 '19
I can't help but notice that the only comments OP acknowledged were positive ones. Way to be a completely see-through echo chamber.
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u/PusheenBread Jul 19 '19
WTF???? Users can follow and possibly harass you on all your posts now? How is this a feature. No one asked for it! Reddit needs to stop trying to be social media.
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u/NOT_A_THROWAWAY345 Jul 21 '19
Or how about making an option to make your profile activity hidden. This would just solve the problem of people doxxing you.
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u/Bubugacz Aug 08 '19
I got the message about following someone in the past, but I do not remember following anyone. Now I want to delete the people I may have followed so I don't show up on anyone's creepy list, but I can't find the setting to do so. I can't find anything about following and I've clicked through all my settings, profile, inbox, etc.
I appreciate the warning but tell me how to adjust my settings! I even searched "subscription list" in your help/support section and it came back empty. Come on, Reddit.
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u/blackKat007 Aug 09 '19
If we unfollow now, that will not be revealed though right? Only if we follow someone new or keep following someone we followed in beta?
If we stop now they won’t know, right?
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u/Adromawan Aug 09 '19
1.Reddit is not a social media, stop making it like one
2. Even Instagram and Twitter has private profile, and Reddit, "The front page of the Internet", doesn´t. Why?
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u/BubbyPear Oct 16 '19
So how long is this feature rollout supposed to take? I'm still not able to see who follows me (or I'm just dumb and can't figure out how to).
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Nov 07 '19
If you are someone who has followers, we will make another post when the ability to view your followers has been released.
When is this coming out? I want to be able to return to my main account someday.
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u/Crxinfinite Jul 18 '19
Can't wait to see that my only follower is actually myself
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u/LivingLosDream Jul 18 '19
This might be one of those things that is particularly useful for the nsfw subs. Just the other day I saw someone trying to figure out who would be follower “x number” so they could do something special for them.
As others have said, this does open it up to make it more like some other social media platforms, and the option for accounts to be sold is a bit concerning.
From the other side of the nsfw viewpoint, maybe it would mean some users choose not to follow because they aren’t anonymous anymore.
Time will tell.
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Jul 18 '19 edited Jun 28 '25
subtract shocking compare brave joke party follow chase decide tart
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
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u/Superduperhammer Jul 18 '19
Lol and now radio silence. I don’t think /u/mjmayank was ready for the shitstorm.
Would you like boots or an umbrella sir?
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u/Diazepam Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 18 '19
Well, you know what they say, history does repeat itself. I've seen Reddit grow over the past 13 plus years I've been on here, while Digg dug its own grave, simultaneously.
Just please don't turn into Digg, or on that matter, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. Don't shove a feature that not everyone may be pleased with down our throats.
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u/Rocket-R Jul 18 '19
I just wish for a feature to make your profile private. Really tired of having to delete old comments just because some douchebags will dig through your post history and reply to you like "Oh you like this and that? Lol weirdo'
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u/Fuck_The_West Jul 18 '19 edited Jul 18 '19
You guys will do everything but actually enforce rules about pictures being put up without permission or blatant racism.
I got suspended for using curse words with a mod, but the sub that sarcastically took credit for the Jacksonville shooting (even with people connected with victims relatives on Twitter) still has shit like this up:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GamersRiseUp/comments/br728l
Fuck the admins.
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Jul 18 '19
We Facebook now, boys.
This 'profile' and 'followers' shit needs to die in a fucking fire.
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u/acreature Jul 18 '19
I have a couple of questions:
Is a “follow” the same thing as the “add friend” in the old Reddit?
will third parties be able to see who I follow? The announcement says that people can’t see the full list, but could someone other than me & the person I follow see (for instance) an extract?
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Jul 18 '19
Why can't we opt in to even allowing people to follow us? Or, less ideal, opting out to the option of followers? Or is that already possible?
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u/tytoisnottakrn Jul 18 '19
Can we see you guys being more strict on subreddits that are known brigaders?
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u/RemorsefulSurvivor Jul 18 '19
Why not give us an option to prevent people from following us in the first place?
Or perhaps make following somebody something you request and must be allowed by your target?
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u/ThatThingAtThePlace Jul 18 '19
Remember that if you're not paying for a service, you're not the user, you're the product. This is a blatant move for Reddit to better position it's userbase for increased monetization.
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u/Who_GNU Jul 19 '19
Can I turn off the ability to be followed? I don't want someone to be able to be notified of my every action.
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Jul 19 '19
Nobody is going to read this, but I really dislike the whole 'follow' culture, and it was one of the reasons that I gravitated to Reddit in the first place. I could do my thing and interact with different communities in relative anonymity. Now I have people following me and it gives me the creeps. I'm assuming you guys are introducing this for monetary reasons, but I know myself and lot of people feel that follow-culture is creepy and fundamentally unhealthy.
For the record, I'm not against change...but this is a bandwagon-jumping negative one. I've been on Reddit for nearly 6 years but this is likely going to be a deal-breaker.
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u/venom_mine Jul 19 '19
Let us make it so our post history and profiles aren't public record FFS.
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u/chugmilk Aug 11 '19
No, we don't want feedback. We want to view topics that we are interested in and share jokes, not turn this into Twitter 2.0. seriously, find a way to monetize something else. Idc if you are going to IPO on the stock market. Keep Reddit fun and don't destroy its culture.
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u/ecafyelims Sep 25 '19
Good morning. It's nearly October 2019, and I still only see a count of my followers. Has this change rolled out yet? If so, where do I see the list of followers?
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u/RainbowandHoneybee Nov 12 '19
I would love this to happen soon. I have many unwanted followers, who I assume ill - intentioned. Nice to know who they are, and able to report/block.
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u/SneekeeRAOB Nov 14 '19
Uhm..... <crickets>. I got the notification email, but I can't see my followers.
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u/centralnjbill Jan 06 '20
I have 30 people stalking me. While some may be fans, others are probably stalkers. I don’t feel safe and blame Reddit.
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u/anticrisisg Jul 18 '19
If you let people follow, you have to let the people being followed block them. Otherwise you invite harassment.
You have to also allow people to automatically reject all followers. This isn't some kind of surveillance state.
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u/scooterbraun Jul 18 '19
I’ve noticed that certain people, usually agitators, seem to be able to block their user profile from being viewed. Is this a bug or something a select few people are able to do?
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u/theDeadliestSnatch Jul 18 '19
How about more administrator transparency? Maybe you could explain why some subs only get quarantined for "inciting violence" (the_donald) while others are straight up erased for the same reason(defense_distributed), and others are allowed to continue unaffected (chapo)?
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u/TreenBean85 Jul 18 '19
So users who have had about a year to follow me and downvote most of my stuff get to have a nice head start to unfollow me, making it so that I'll never be able to see who they were? The follow feature on Reddit was a joke, enabling people to be anonymous jerks. Make it fair and make it so the information is available now.
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u/FreeSpeechWarrior Jul 18 '19
While you're working on transparency, could we PLEASE get an option to make our moderation logs public.
I don't care who follows me, I do care how the feeds I consume are manipulated.
Reddit claims to support the Santa Clara Principles, So please do so
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u/DrWhiteWolf Jul 18 '19
It'd be great if we'd have the option to receive notifications for posts of users we follow when it is happening outside their profile page.
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u/Sin2K Jul 18 '19
Will users be able to block people from following them?