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I've been looking around and I can't seem to find an automatic (i.e. buzz- or Twitter-like) way to follow users inside Stack Exchange. Why haven't the developers added such a feature? It could help beginner users follow other beginners with the same interests. We would be able to learn from each others' questions and pitfalls. Also, it would reduce double posting.

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  • Stack Overflow is not a social network. Period. End of story. End of debate.
    – user164207
    Dec 10, 2012 at 21:46
  • You can follow other users on stackoverflow or any other stackexchange site using StackEye - A chrome extension. Check this out stackapps.com/questions/4454/… Mar 15, 2014 at 6:04

5 Answers 5

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You can always follow a user's RSS Feed. You will find the icon on every user page.

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  • 1
    Ooo, now I can use ifttt and get Boxcar notifications!
    – alord1689
    Feb 4, 2012 at 0:29
  • 1
    The link is broken now: why did it stop working? May 2, 2014 at 17:15
  • @Anderson there was a split between Metas recently; what used to be Meta Stack Overflow now lives on as Meta Stack Exchange. Try meta.stackexchange.com/feeds/user/144305
    – Pekka
    May 2, 2014 at 17:21
  • I tried it with one user. And it throws 404 Jun 21, 2018 at 3:23
  • @AmitGupta Stack Exchange seems to be a special case. It seems to be working e.g. on stackoverflow.com
    – Pekka
    Jun 21, 2018 at 6:35
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No, because Stack Overflow is NOT Social Networking site.

Quoted from Jeff's Blog,

We’re not building some hyper-viral social networking tool like Facebook or MySpace or LinkedIn where we try to game you into hanging around and socializing and building lists of fake friends to get results

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    that dosent mean that adding that feature will make SO become facebook. Social networking is a very powerful tool when used correctly for some reason it has become what it is today. At the end of the day it will represent added value to the site, and easier to use
    – Carlos
    Mar 8, 2010 at 8:28
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    @Carlos: Are you honestly suggesting that you, who has been a member of Stack Overflow for one (!) day, can judge what will and what won't "represent added value to the site"? I wouldn't even concede this ability to most of the people who have been here for the whole 1 1/2 years (let alone myself).
    – balpha StaffMod
    Mar 8, 2010 at 9:08
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    "Because Stack Overflow is NOT Social Networking site.!" that i believe not it not to be a very explicative answer, hence my comment trying to dig for reasons. Don't get me wrong am not trying to judge but to give an opinion -yes in the 1st day-. You don't have to watch a movie for 1 1/2 years to have an opinion do you?. The best example could be; use Bing for a few searches, and then tell me if at any moment u didn't any thoughts of what could be maybe easier, more accessible, better or whatever... u will have an opinion... even after 2 uses only. Don't be trapped by dogma.
    – Carlos
    Mar 8, 2010 at 9:43
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    @Carlos: There's a big difference between saying "I feel it might add value" and "It will add value". Also, I resent your accusation of being dogmatic. There's nothing wrong with proposing new ideas, but suggesting someone is "trapped by dogma" just because they disagree with you isn't terribly far away from trolling. I assume you have the best intentions, but please see that other people might have different opinions, and more often than not, these opinions have been built from using SO for quite a while. Anyhow, welcome to SOFU and Meta :)
    – balpha StaffMod
    Mar 8, 2010 at 10:09
  • @balpha: Accept my apologies balpha, to be perfectly honest with you i didnt mean to write "will" i wanted "could", i did realize after i submitted my last reply but i was too proud to change it. I just got a bit annoyed given the answers/comments seemed at the moment hostile. Anyway, all the best see u around at SO. ;)
    – Carlos
    Mar 8, 2010 at 10:25
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    This doesn't have to be social networky to be useful. No one has to know that I am following someone. There are a small subset of users that I find continually post ridiculously good information. Even though I only basically only follow the algorithm tag, I'd still want to at least skim everything they write.
    – rrenaud
    Sep 15, 2011 at 16:10
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Once there's a feature that can 'follow' users, there will be requests to be able to send message to those followed or followers. Then there will be requests to be able to blacklist or ban users then there will be requests to group the followed user lists then.......

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    now that! makes a lot of sense
    – Carlos
    Mar 8, 2010 at 9:27
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    and then we loose.
    – perbert
    Mar 8, 2010 at 14:50
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It is possible to browse all posts by a specific user; just use the activity tab and filter by posts:

https://meta.stackoverflow.com/users/144305/carlos?tab=activity#apage_1-afilter_posts

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    Yay, Jeff looked at this thread :D. Yet it doesn't provide the usefulness of being able to keep a list of people who's answers you've found helpful in the past - so with a little free time to brush up on some coding techniques you could visit a page of those you follow and see "what's new". Among other features. Please see my response here: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/886/…
    – mahalie
    May 25, 2011 at 19:02
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There is an extension for Google Chrome and Firefox called FriendOverflow to follow your friends:

Follow your friends on StackOverflow with FriendOverflow

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