Start "Following"

Hi All, one of the things I want to start doing is informing the membership of the great features we have to offer.  One I want to highlight here is the ability to follow other members.  By doing so you are subscribing to another member and receiving notifications of their activity on the public areas of the site; activities like: replying to threads, writing reviews, and other actions they take around the site.

Why is this important?

Following a user keeps you engaged with topics and members you find interesting without always having to filter through the forums yourself.  Once you get your email notification you can go right to the topic.  So, even if you're away from The Sand Trap for a few days, you can still be informed with the latest topics and up to date with what's going on with your favorite members.  This feature works great for me when I am short on time and need my Sand Trap fix.

Who do I follow?

I'd recommend following Forum Leaders or users who's posts you tend to like.  For example, I follow iacas because I want to keep up with his posts in "Swing Thoughts", any reviews he might write and just see what's he's generally up to on the site.

How do I follow?

To follow a member, visit their profile page and click the "Follow Member" link under their avatar. You will be able to "unfollow" someone in the same place.

Can I stop someone from following me?

Hopefully this feature will never have to be used but if you're concerned about a member who's following you, visit their profile page and click "Block Member." This will also prevent them from sending you private messages and will collapse their posts when you view the forums, so use this carefully! Also note that you cannot block site administrators and moderators.

I think following is great. If you want to follow me, go for it. Or follow the Forum Leaders or others, as Mike suggested.

You can also "follow" people by clicking the appropriate link in the menu that appears when you hover over their username, like this (I follow Mike, so it says "Unfollow"):

Rich,

The easiest way to do that - and I'm not saying it's "easy" just "easiest" - is to go to the home page and scroll down to this section:

Recent TheSandTrap.com Activity

When you're there, make sure "Subscriptions Only" is "on" and then make sure Profiles and Forums are on. If you want to add in Articles (we don't get many "articles" -> formerly "wikis"), go ahead, and the same applies to reviews of "gear & courses" (equipment and courses).

You can even hit the "play" button to get a somewhat live stream (I think) of content as it's added.

Rich's post brings up a good point: you can choose how often you get subscription notifications on the people you follow. You can get them immediately, daily, weekly (both in a digest version), or even set them to "site-only" so they just show up in the "stream" I talked about in the post prior.

I'm not sure what you mean. A blog where? Following is something you do here in the community.

Ha ha ha ha.

Why the hesitation?

No, my goal is to make this site the best it can be and I'm interested in hearing all pros and cons about one of our features.  What is it you don't like about the following feature?