Following someone

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   uche_n2aposted 12 years ago

   Sometime ago someone said it is a pleasant courtesy to follow whoever is following you; since then I adopted same as good practice. So when I follow someone I expect the person to reciprocate out of same courtesy.

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Then you are out of line and have the wrong concept of why to follow anyone.  Hubpages is not a social site playing the following game.
      
      The ONLY reason to follow anyone is because you like what they write and want to see more of it.

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      AEvansposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      There are those hubbers who do it that way and others who do not. Just keep writing and believe me if you write they will come.

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      sasta10posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      If I like someones hub I follow them even if they don't follow me.  I also follow those that follow me becos I am kind.  Thanks.

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   uche_n2aposted 12 years ago

   Thanks and I think that is the spirit and the way to go AEvans.

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   Peter Owenposted 12 years ago

   I think it is also a mistake to follow people without reading their hubs. I explained in a hub I wrote called How New Hubbers Ruin Their Hubscore

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4. 96

   Glenn Stokposted 12 years ago

   If you were to follow everyone who follows you, then you'd never have time to read all their Hubs. You follow someone when you want to keep informed about their new Hubs. That's the only reason why you should be following someone. I have over 400 followers. Imagine if I was to reciprocate for each. I could never keep up!
   
   I'll tell you what I do... 2 things...
   
   (1) I follow someone if I see they have a common theme of writing that is of interest to me. I may love one of their Hubs. But that might be an exception and no reason to follow. I'll find them again anyway as I watch for new Hubs under the Hubs tab. Many people write about various unrelated topics, as I do. So it would be silly to follow blindly.
   
   (2) When someone follows me, my way of reciprocating is to check out their Hubs to see if there is anything that interests me. But first I look at their Hubtivity. If I see they just followed 20 other people within the same minute, I ignore them.

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Have you been spying on me?  That's almost exactly the way I do it.  Particularly the last couple of lines.

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         Cardisaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         When I just joined HP I did the follow someone because they followed me thing, plus I was following people I really wanted to follow. In no time I was following over 100 people. At the same time I found I had little or no time to actually work on my own stuff because I spent the greater part of each day reading well over 30 hubs.
         
         I have lost a few followers, but that's no problem because having a follower that does not read your work does not help you at all.
         I decided to check out some hubivity and realized that there were a set of persons on HP that only followed people. They hardly wrote anything and they certainly do not read your hubs. So I educed the amount of persons I follow by sticking those that really interest me and those that are active writers.

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   uche_n2aposted 12 years ago

   Hello wilderness
   I had no idea you existed let alone spy on you. Well since we both are applying same courtesy approach, then it mus be worth it then and probably it work very well.

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      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You misunderstand.  I was replying to Glenn Stok - he uses almost the exact approach I do.

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6. 60

   uche_n2aposted 12 years ago

   Thanks you all for your responses but with very delicate thoughts about following people, I guess I assumed wrongly that people would understand that (a) you would have read and found very informative the hub of the  persons you follow, (b) keeping tab of the hub of someone you have found his collection of write ups very fascinating, (c) you also publish informative and captivating hubs for which people would like to follow you and lastly (d) you ensure you identify what sort of hub you enjoy, e.g poems or purely articles.
   I hope am a lot clearer now people?

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   1. 95

      wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I at least did not understand your take on it.  I thought that you would automatically follow back as a matter of courtesy but I see that I was mistaken.
      
      It's just that I very commonly get a follower that, when I look at their hubtivity, has just recently followed dozens of other people as well.  They very obviously haven't read that many hubs and are simply looking for someone to follow them back (perhaps out of courtesy).   Which I never do.

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7. 61

   princess gposted 12 years ago

   When I first started, I would just follow people randomly. Now I only follow if there is something I've read that I enjoy. I really don't want to fill up my feed with stuff I'm not interested in.
   
   I make the exception for people I interact with or I think are funny on the forums, whether I've read their stuff or not.

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      someonewhoknowsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      "Stupid is as stupid does "
      A FAMOUS LINE IN THE MOVIE "FOREST GUMP" infects us all. It is the failure to draw reasonable conclusions or exercise appropriate judgment even though one is, or should be, aware of the pertinent facts. Stupidity can also be a denial of  "THE"  facts because they do not fit into one’s particular philosophy or belief system.
      For example, it is probably stupid to avoid medicines that cure just because they may not be holistic, or because one does not believe in doctors.
      
      Looking back to those who dominated the medical profession in the twenieth century.
      
      The reason holistic health practicisoners were forced to exist as a lower class of medical practitioner,was because of the "selfishness" and feeling of supiority of those who wanted to practice a more costly form of medicine.
      
      The Doctor who started the A.M.A. American Medical Association ,never even practiced medicine at the time he created the organization.He came right out of college and proceeded to organize this system of medical authority,which is biased toward making the cost of medical care as exspensive as possible.It,seems TEMPTATION to control others actions is the definition of the "DEVEL" as described in religion.Religion being alligence to an organized system of control over peoples actions.Not,that everything they do is bad,but the potential is there.Politics does the same thing,but in a more secular way,in the civic arena.
      
      In the "real" world, reality is whatever each of us think it is, privately or collectively.Our private reality may not reflect our public reality.Reality can be subjective or objective depending on what your intentions are as opposed to what other peoples intentions are.Reality is not necessarily what "we" as individuals or collectives think it is.
      
      For example: After the world trade center disaster in Newyork on 9/11/2001 during a news conference with former president Bush,he was asked by a reporter ,about accusations that he knew beforehand that the disaster was about to occur,and did nothing to try to stop it.and wheather making an accusation like that bordered on hatespeech After a few seconds of hesitation,and uncertainy as to what to say.The president clearly looks disturbed by the question ,and says:
      
      Quote: "It's,It's aaa politics,and aaaaaaaaaa  you know it's aaaaaaa politics."Then realizing that he's showing his insecurity with being asked such a question,says "It's an absurd insinuation."
      Everyone laughs ,it off as ad absurd insinuation,out of respect for either the president,or because they fear it might be the truth and they fear it's implications for them as well as others..
      
      We tend to go along to get along rather than question authority.Not that they would be willing to tell us the truth if they were trying to hide it.

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         princess gposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         What in the world are you talking about?

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            Uninvited Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I think he/she got lost...

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   kmackey32posted 12 years ago

   I sometimes follow back.

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   kmackey32posted 12 years ago

   There I followed you now you have to follow back...

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    mega1posted 12 years ago

    I have done both - but I really just want to follow people whose hubs I like.  So I no longer follow hubbers just becuz they follow me.  In fact, I have followed a couple of really prolific hubbers who I would never have time to read all their daily hubs and I'd like to unfollow but I don't want to hurt their feelings!  Ahh, the complexities of hubber etiquette!  That's the real question, when is the right time to UNFOLLOW and why? 

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    uche_n2aposted 12 years ago

    That is the real unspoken question: when is the right time to unfollow someone?

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12. 62

    Lisa HWposted 12 years ago

    I follow people that I think may write the kind of stuff I'm usually interested in reading, but also people who write stuff that may be an interesting, and yet new and different, type of thing (apart from my "usual" preferences).  I lean more toward "general reading" type stuff than niche type stuff; so by "different" I don't mean "so different" that it isn't general reading.  For example, if someone follows me and I discover it's someone with "9 zillion" Hubs about making money online, software, or even children's books; I don't follow them.  I'd be lying if I pretended to be interested in their Hubs (no matter how much I may otherwise respect the person's writing).
    
    I'm pretty slow at adding new people to follow, mainly because I've collected so many to follow already.  Un-following some would be the answer, but with a lot of them; if I followed them once, and they're still writing the same kind of stuff, I don't want to un-follow just to make room (time) for some more.  Needless to say, there's not time to read every Hub of everyone I follow; so I see their Hubs as a big pool from which I can choose from at one time or another when the time is good.  On the other hand, once in awhile I'll just follow someone who follows me back - just because it looks like I may enjoy some of the stuff they write.  In other words, I often just "do whatever" if it seems right at the time.

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