Friend or follower?

[peachy001]

Hi all. Got my One, so much of it leaves me scratching my head. The friends/followers thing seems like it has potential. But they appear to have altered the way the friend request works. It used to be via a message, and was real visible. Now I don't know if someone wants to be a friend or a follower. So odd.

Also, it would be nice if Forza added your latest designs to your feeds.

 

[Coreldan]

I don't have the X1 so can't really help, but I'm pretty sure the follower thing requires no requests for you to accept. It might inform about you (or maybe not, dunno), but I guess the whole point of the idea is that it doesn't require interaction from you, but still allows people to be a "fan", in case you're a kickass player!

 

[peachy001]

Yeah, I thought that too. However, a friend said they sent me a friend request, and it added him as a follower. It then gave me the option to add friend. I am toying with the idea that he did it wrong. Also, I had a friend request from someone without a One. He has a 360 and WP. It showed him as a follower on the One, but showed a friend request on my phone.

 

[tk-093]

So, I'm 80% sure this is how it works. (I always leave an out...) :wink:

If you follow somebody, you are a follower. If they follow you back, you become friends.

 

[Mystictrust]

Yeah, I thought that too. However, a friend said they sent me a friend request, and it added him as a follower.

So, I'm 80% sure this is how it works. (I always leave an out...) :wink:
If you follow somebody, you are a follower. If they follow you back, you become friends.

Yep, that is exactly it. Let's start with this: get the term "friend request" out of your mind because it no longer works like that.

Now, anyone can add you as a friend and they automatically follow you. The person that is following you will see you as a "Friend" on their own profile (since they just added you), but you will see them as a "Follower". If you go to your follower's profile and then select 'Add friend', then they will be listed as a 'Friend' to you now as well.

As an example from my own profile: I added Daniel Rubino as a friend. He currently shows up on my list as a friend. If you go to Daniel Rubino's profile, you will not see me in his friends list, but in his followers list (which is much, much larger than friends, because I doubt he's going to accept the entire WPCentral community that is following him - nor does he need to).

I guess it would be less confusing if, in my above example, Daniel Rubino showed up in my friends list with a 'Following' tag, or perhaps if there was an entirely separate list from 'Friends' called 'Following' to kind of separate people out a bit. But oh well. I guess this way people have no idea if I have added them as a friend or not (without viewing my friend's list)

Also, I had a friend request from someone without a One. He has a 360 and WP. It showed him as a follower on the One, but showed a friend request on my phone.

The systems don't play nice together, so of course you're going to see a friend request from your phone, or anywhere else that still uses the 360 model. Think about it: On 360, there is only one model: Friend request, requiring two-way acceptance. On the One, there is a one-way "add friend" follower addition, and a two-way "add friend" friend addition. I'm not sure how MS can solve this, but what this likely means is that Daniel Rubino with all of his many followers now has a lot of friend requests on his WP, 360, Xbox 360 SmartGlass, and xbox.com (all rely on the old model)... even though he won't see those at all from his One or Xbox One SmartGlass (only two things on the new model).

In summary to your overall question OP, as to knowing if someone wants to be a friend or a follower... friend requests no longer exist. When you go to your friends app on the One, you'll see a star next to Followers and it will tell you how many are new. Then you go to that person and add friend if you want them to be your friend. Otherwise, leave them be and let them view your game clips and activity or whatever your privacy settings allow.

ALSO: I can get a bit long winded sometimes. Hopefully I wasn't too confusing.

 

[peachy001]

That helps, thanks. I thought you could just follow without the need to ever be a friend, and there would be no "add friend" option. How do I know if someone just wants to follow only or if they want to be friends? Otherwise I would be adding randoms for no reason. For example, in Forza you have the option to follow certain creators, but I would not want to befriend them all, I would just like to be able to check their designs. Bizarre.

 

[tk-093]

That helps, thanks. I thought you could just follow without the need to ever be a friend, and there would be no "add friend" option. How do I know if someone just wants to follow only or if they want to be friends? Otherwise I would be adding randoms for no reason. For example, in Forza you have the option to follow certain creators, but I would not want to befriend them all, I would just like to be able to check their designs. Bizarre.

Look at it this way. If somebody follows you, and you have no idea who they are, don't follow them back.

It's kinda like twitter in that regards.

 

[peachy001]

But I still don't know if they intend to be friends, or if they just want to follow. Odd system to me.

 

[ncxcstud]

But I still don't know if they intend to be friends, or if they just want to follow. Odd system to me.

Just think of it this way - someone enjoyed your presence enough online to 'follow' you.

Same as in real life if someone sees something you do and says, 'thats a cool person.'

On the Xbox One, people just have a way to keep track of those they like. This gives us the potential of joining into games with people we want to play with... Whether we're friends or not.

 

[peachy001]

People, I am loving the way that nobody has jumped down my throat with my lack of love for this "feature". Sincerely, cheers. I can handle the follower feature, there are many that I may consider following. But I may not want them as friends, with all the associated notifications and spam-like news feeds. My issue is that I can't choose to indicate my actual intent. If I just want to follow, they will be unaware and may add me as a friend. If I don't want that level of interaction, then I would have to un-friend them and then follow again. Which they may subsequently add as a friend again. They need to allow you to indicate your actual intent.

 

[tk-093]

People, I am loving the way that nobody has jumped down my throat with my lack of love for this "feature". Sincerely, cheers. I can handle the follower feature, there are many that I may consider following. But I may not want them as friends, with all the associated notifications and spam-like news feeds. My issue is that I can't choose to indicate my actual intent. If I just want to follow, they will be unaware and may add me as a friend. If I don't want that level of interaction, then I would have to un-friend them and then follow again. Which they may subsequently add as a friend again. They need to allow you to indicate your actual intent.

But if you follow them, don't you get the same news feed you would get if they followed you back and you became "friends?" I admit I have not paid that much attention to it.

 

[ncxcstud]

On the XBOX One, notifications don't hassle you like they did with the 360. I don't get pop-ups that say, "So-and-so has come online" or "What's-her-name wants to play Battlefield 4 too!"

Everything is housed in the activity feed instead of annoying you with pop-ups/notifications. Unless of course someone sends your a party invite or message. But, the other things that we were notified on 360 about don't show up on the XBOX One.

 

[peachy001]

Shows how much notice I have taken. So how do I know if my friend comes online when I am in a game? Also, in leaderboards and stuff, I am assuming followers don't appear, but friends do? Perhaps it is dependent on the game.

 

[Mystictrust]

Shows how much notice I have taken. So how do I know if my friend comes online when I am in a game?

That is something the community is asking to have back right now... notifications from friends when they sign on. I personally would like to see it to where you can set it so only the Friends you set as "favorites" have notifications, because sometimes you don't care about when each and every last friend comes online. MS initially disabled it because they figured nobody would want notifications for 1000 friends if you've maxed out... but they've seen the feedback already (on that user feedback site, wherever it is) and will, hopefully, implement a system with options for "NOTIFY FRIENDS, NOTIFY FAVORITES, DON'T NOTIFY"

I'm not sure about followers on leaderboards - I assume they won't show up as well. I can tell you that I went to start a game with a follower who messaged me, only to find the game wouldn't let me send a game/party invite to that person without them being on my friends list. So, if anything, it does seem a little split up (as it should be) so it would be odd if they didn't split up leaderboards as well.

 

[ncxcstud]

I do know that in Battlefield 4 they show 'followers' as 'friends' within their system. So, I'm a follower of Major Nelson and e, whenever they're playing BF4 online - the game tells me they are online - since it sees them as my 'friends' - and gives me the option of joining their games.

I do believe it is game dependent if followers show up in leaderboards and such...

 

[peachy001]

Some great input. Thanks. I only have Forza and Zoo Tycoon, so not got many points of reference. Am buying myself Battlefield for Christmas though. Can't wait.