Following people and shops

Following someone puts their posts and activity in your Following feed. Following a fish store (by tapping its heart) sends you its shop updates. Both are free and you can undo them any time. You need to be signed in.

How do I follow someone?

1. Open their profile. Tap their name or picture almost anywhere on the site: a feed post, a forum post, a tank page or a followers list.
2. Tap Follow near the top of their profile, next to Message.
3. The button changes to Following.

Their posts and activity now show in the Following tab of your Feed.

How do I unfollow someone?

Tap Following on their profile (or next to their name in a followers or following list). It switches back to Follow straight away. There's no confirmation, and they aren't told.

Does the person know I followed them?

They don't get a notification when you follow them. Your name does appear in their public followers list, and they appear in your following list, so anyone who looks can see it.

What does following change?

• Their posts and activity (tanks they share, listings they post, spawns, trophies and forum threads they start) show in your Following feed.
• Your name is added to their followers count and list.

Following doesn't give you any extra access. Everything in the feed is public anyway, and you can message anyone without following them.

Where can I see followers and following lists?

Every public profile shows two counts under the name, for example "12 followers" and "30 following". Tap either one to open the list.

Each list shows the person's picture (with a gold ring for Society members), name and @username, newest first, with a Follow or Following button so you can follow people straight from the list. Your own row has no button. Empty lists say, for example, "Jess has no followers yet." or "Jess isn't following anyone yet."

These lists are public; anyone can view them.

Can I remove a follower?

There's no button to remove a follower. If you don't want someone following you, block them from their profile or the ... menu on their feed post. Blocking stops them following you and hides each other's posts and comments. See Blocking people.

Why can't I follow someone?

• You're signed out. Tapping Follow shows "Sign in to follow" with a Sign in link.
• It's your own profile. Your profile shows Edit profile instead.
• One of you has blocked the other. Blocked people can't follow each other.
• It didn't save. If the button flips back, the follow didn't go through, usually because of a connection problem. Try again.

How do I follow a fish store?

Store pages don't have a Follow button. Instead:

1. Open the store's page from Fish stores.
2. Tap the heart (Add to favorites). It turns coral and the favorite count next to it goes up.
3. Tap it again (Remove from favorites) to stop following.

If you're signed out, tapping the heart shows "Sign in to favorite".

What do I get from following a shop?

When a shop you follow posts an update (a restock, a sale, an event), you get a Shop updates notification titled with the shop's name followed by "posted an update". It shows the update's title, or "Tap to see what's new at the shop." Tapping it opens the shop's page, where its updates are listed.

Shop updates don't appear in the main feed. You can turn these notifications off under Shop updates in your notification settings while still keeping the shop as a favorite. See Favoriting and following stores.

Can shops see who follows them?

Shop owners see how many followers their shop has in their shop tools, including new follower counts in their weekly report. See Shop insights.

Common problems

My Following feed is empty after I followed people. They may not have posted recently. Check Everyone for now.

The Follow button flips back. The follow didn't save. Check you're signed in and try again. If one of you has blocked the other, following won't work.

I stopped getting a shop's updates. Check the heart on the shop's page is still coral, and that Shop updates is switched on in your notification settings. Only new updates from published shops are sent.

Someone I don't know follows me. That's fine and harmless, since the feed is public. If they bother you, block them.