So what happens when members "follow" someone?

[jauburn]

The action of "following" another member should be a fairly momentous occasion for the person followed. But I find that, in practice, the person being followed ends up feeling "so what?"

That should change.

How can xenforo make it clear that being "followed" results in "x" number of things?

Answer that question from a platform standpoint, and the "follow" feature will become truly energizing to forum administrators.

 

[Martok]

How can xenforo make it clear that being "followed" results in "x" number of things?

Did you have something in mind?

Following on XenForo is pretty similar to on Twitter, nothing special with that either.

 

[jauburn]

Did you have something in mind?

Yes, I do.

Answer these questions: Someone followed me. Now what? Where do I look? What does it mean? How does it affect my view of the forum?

Forget Twitter. You can't expect "following" someone on a xenforo-based forum has anything to do with Twitter. The platforms are totally different, so the comparison is all but irrelevant.

 

[Martok]

It's not irrelevant at all. When you follow someone on Twitter, your Twitter feed shows you activity from the people you follow. On XenForo when you follow someone, you see their activity in your News Feed. That's pretty much the same as Twitter.