I would suggest there should be an option to browse through profiles and follow them if their bio and shared items seem interesting.
Right now, I could see some other profiles only by seeing profile of a user who is already following me.
If I stumble upon a user who shares the items that are mostly useful or interesting to me, I would very much like to follow him. But first I have to *stumble upon* him.
I think, if such feature is implemented, people would want to have privacy option too. For example, allow anyone to follow me/view my profile. Block users from following you, etc.
You can already browse through profiles by clicking on a profile, checking one of the users that they follow, and then previewing their blurblog. I’m thinking about included their shared stories count next to their icon for context.
>You can already browse through profiles by clicking on a profile, checking one of the users that they follow, and then previewing their blurblog.
Right. But if I am a new user how I am going to click on that first profile? In my case my friends/followers are not using NewsBlur. So I am not going to get to see any other profile and then his followers. Unless some other NewsBlur user tracks me and follow me.
You started to follow me. Then from your profile I was able to see other users. What if you have not started to follow me? I would have stayed a lonely user at NewsBlur.
NewsBlur has to provide some markers or suggest some users to kick start follow process.
What I suggested is to have a list of users (perhaps with their bio, number of followers, number of shared items). User can go through it and follow anyone they like. If the list is sorted into interests or shows ‘similarity’ then it would be better.
Yeah, it’ll include that information, and the list will be populated with a whole lot of #4 if you have no friends yet to populate #1 and #2.
Also remember that the first thing you do is go through that 4-step intro dialog, which finds your friends. Soon, with enough people, if you import from Twitter you’re bound to follow at least one person (wait for the public launch to confirm this), or eventually somebody will follow you.
Haven’t decided yet if I should email you on new followers. I mean, it’s kind of important, but you’ll see it on your dashboard (with highlights on new stuff soon).
There needs to be a way to make the blurblog private. I don’t want random people finding (and commenting) on my posts. I only wanted blurblog for my friends. There should at least be some sort of approval process on who can follow me.
We will eventually launch Blurblog pools, which can have privacy settings. We may consider protected personal blurblogs, but I don’t see that being prioritized in the near term.