QOTO.org new January 2020 Features Added - 5 - Account Subscriptions.

As per the original annoucement post by @freemo :

"Account Subscriptions - This allows you to follow a remote accounts public toots in your Home timeline without actually following them, great for following users with locked accounts."

So this is another new and unique feature -- we can see posts from users similarly as if we Followed them, but without actually Following them.

Why would someone be interested in that?

- For Locked accounts (which display a small padlock besides the user name); these normally will require you to click the "Follow" button as usual, but will only work once the user approves your follow request.

- so you can get similar access, but only to their "Public" posts. You will not see "Unlisted" or "Followers Only" posts.

- If this is an account you have a slight interest in, that might be enough.

Isn't this snooping, or uncool, or frowned upon? No, not at all.

- we can only see posts that were made with "Public" privacy setting at their original instance.

- these posts will be Federated and will join the millions of others in the Home and Federated feeds.

The advantage is that we see them in the same way we see the posts from users we actually Follow.

How to "Subscribe" to a user?

- If you visit any user's Profile page, you will see a new "Subscribe" icon, which looks a bit like the typical WiFi one (see screenshot #1)

- Notice that this particular user has a Locked profile (padlock icon beside his username, as highlighted in screenshot #1)

- Regardless of the Locked Following, we click on the Subscribe button.

- and it immediately switches to a Blue, highlighted button, indicating a Subscribed account.

- bringing the mouse over it shows an "Unsubscribe" action legend (see screenshot #2)

From this point on, things will work very similar to being a Follower to that user.

- you will see any of their new Public posts in your "Home" timeline (the one with the little House icon).

- you will not see posts if they were made with more restricted Privacy settings (Unlisted, Followers only, or Direct Messages)

- And if you are no longer interested, visit their profile and unsubscribe from them, similar to Unfollowing a user.

** This post can also be seen in Prettier form at the Discourse Forum : https://discourse.qoto.org/t/qoto-org-new-january-2020-features-added-detailed-descriptions/192/8

** Why, Prettier? Because.. Text formatting, Header sizes, Bold and Italicized text styles, Inline images inserted in the proper place on the text, that's why. 😛