No worries. :)

Lisa, Rivka,

That's what happened. I left the box checked when I did the invite. I didn't notice it at the time. My bad.

Rivka, Oh, that's what that means. I thought it just enabled or kept members from requesting to follow us. Thanks.

Since following was introduced, there's an option to follow someone if they don't (or until they do) approve you as a friend. I think the default is for that option to be checked.

Steve, Sure. Anytime.

I'm still curious about how this could happen. I think if we select to follow a member we're following them unless they remove us, and if we ask a member to be a friend we either show up on their friends' list (if they accept) or we don't (if they ignore or haven't yet gotten to the request.) Maybe authors can do more with this than general members. Usually, authors here tend to accept all friend requests and if they want a more personal account here keep their personal and author accounts separate.

Lisa wrote: "Steve,

You can remove those you're following.

Go to friends. Click on people I"m following. You'll be given a page with those members and one of the options for each one is to stop following.

Q..."

Lisa, that did the trick. Thank you!

Steve,

You can remove those you're following.

Go to friends. Click on people I"m following. You'll be given a page with those members and one of the options for each one is to stop following.

Question for GR or anybody who knows: If a member makes a friend request, can the member respond with other than accept or ignore and make that person a follower? I didn't think so.

Steve, Check your friend list; that person may be on it.

I'm not sure how this works. Just the other day I sent a friend request to someone, and they've not responded yet. But on my profile it shows that I'm now "Following" (which sounds a bit creepy) this person (who is also an author). That was not really my intent, but I have no means to control or remove this "Follow" tag. I assume if this person accepts the friend request, this comes off. To some extent this makes me feel less likely to send a friend request in the future.

The announcement did say that we can now follow authors as well, and I've already seen some author pages with the new 'follow' button.
Brooke, you should report your issue (with links if possible) in the 'Bugs' section of the feedback group. = )

Thanks, Lisa. I had just read the announcement that is linked at the top of the homepage, which suggested a list of authors to follow, which is why I thought it was currently possible. I'll be patient!

Brooke, No, right now we cannot follow authors. I do believe GR is working on that.

I don't think following an author is working right now.

I tried to flip Neil Gaiman from one of my friends to someone I follow, but it wouldn't show up under my profile. I thought at first it might be a bug related to setting someone to 'follow' when I was already their friend, but I just tried following another author and HE isn't showing up on my profile either. A non-author that I just added, however, is showing up just fine.

OK, that makes sense. Thank you.

Hi Cassandra and Mike,

Go to the profile of someone who is not a friend. Right by the "Add as a Friend Button", you will see "Follow Reviews." Click on that.

You can't follow a friend because you are already getting their reviews on your "recent updates".

You're already following your friends by virtue of being their friend. This type of following is for strangers and acquaintances. :)

How do you activate it? None of my friends' pages has a link that will allow me to follow them.

Heather wrote: "Ooh, I got my first follower! I feel so impawtant."

Heather;
How do you get the box Follow Reviews on your profile?
Mike Draper

Ooh, I got my first follower! I feel so impawtant.

Ben wrote: "Hi everyone,

Ben:
Sorry to be dense but I can't seem to get this started, to follow another members' reviews.
i.e., Jim Mc and I want to follow each other's reviews but when I put follow it doesn't let me add names.
Help.....

Lisa and Summer -- picked up this idea -- thanks. I had dropped a couple of bookstores as I was overwhelmed with posts when they were on my friend list but now I can follow and check out their offerings at will! great use for the following feature.

Lisa wrote: "I have found a great use of this feature for me being a follower: bookstore members!"

I'm using it for that, too. I had friended a bookstore which is not in my area and was inundated by invitations to its events, now I switched to following it and hope that will eliminate the feeling of missing out.

Lisa got it right in #9.

Checkboxes would be cool - but it's a little hard to do, so we'll hold off for now.

Kasia wrote: "4. Also I'd like to be able to chose to see the updates from both "top friends" and "people I'm following" and be able to see both books and reviews but not statuses - it the filters had check boxes it would solve the problem."

I'd love to see check boxes instead of radio buttons.

Thank you for the heads up. I don't care for it, so will maintain a private profile.

I've just noticed the tiny avatars of those who I'm following me and the link to my followers. It's all there on my profile page. Looks great. Thanks!

Oh, and I don't mind at all if anyone wants to follow me and I know there are at least several dozen members I'd love to follow, but I do actually have some time constraints.

For now, I have found a great use of this feature for me being a follower: bookstore members!

Brooke, My understanding is that two members can follow one another but they're then given the chance to become friends, and yes, we can either be friends with someone or follow/be followed by them, not both.

What happens if you follow your follower? Does that automatically become a friendship? Or do you have to take the extra step yourself to turn it into a friendship? And if you're following someone and they decide to friend you, does that automatically clear them from your following list?

Looking forward to putting this feature to use.

We are working on the ability to follow authors. It's a little tricky because we already have the ability to follow an author's blog, so we are going to combine that with the new following feature. We are currently thinking that author updates (reviews, etc) will appear on the "authors" tab on the homepage, along with their blog posts.

Oh and the page where I'm supposed to have my followers listed, when empty should not display:

people following my reviews (showing 0-0 of 0) back to Kasia's profile »
Kasia is not following anyone's reviews.

The second sentence should go more like: "Nobody is following your reviews"

Nicely done Kasia; well spotted!

Ha!! But I found a way around #2 - you go to the authors profile page -> click on one of this friends -> then on the profile of that friend (say Bob) you selct -> Bob's friend -> on that list you can see everybody with "friend" and "follow reviews button next to their name"

And problem solved.

It's so backward though :(

I really like the new 'follow' feature; thanks for implementing it.

2. I don't see the follow reviews button on any author's page. Some of the really good reviewers are authors as well, and it would be nice to have an option to simply follow their reviews, not either "fan" or "friend" them.

I second this request.

I love it!!!
Ok a few things:

1. Is there a way to change some of my current friends to followers? I haven't noticed it so far, and it's something I'd like.

2. I don't see the follow reviews button on any author's page. Some of the really good reviewers are authors as well, and it would be nice to have an option to simply follow their reviews, not either "fan" or "friend" them.

3. Also it would be nice to have some information on the profile page - how many people given person is following, how many are followed by him/her. It's there already.

4. Also I'd like to be able to chose to see the updates from both "top friends" and "people I'm following" and be able to see both books and reviews but not statuses - it the filters had check boxes it would solve the problem.

Hi everyone,

We just launched a new feature today that will allow you to follow the reviews and status updates of other members. It's a great way to see content from someone you might not be interested in adding as a friend. You'll see a new button on profile pages that says 'follow reviews' if you aren't already friends with them. On the right sidebar, you'll see the people they follow and the number of people who follow them.

If your profile is set to public, but you'd rather not have people following you, you can uncheck the box under privacy settings on the "my account" page. If you've already marked your profile as private then other people won't be able to follow you.

You'll also notice some changes to the homepage. We've added new ways to filter recent updates, which you can see by clicking the link below the tabs next to where it says "showing."

I'm really curious to see who people start following :) It should be a great way to discover people writing great reviews. For those of you who receive a lot of friend requests, you can now share your reviews and status updates without having to accept them all.