Hello!
In a community like UX Mastery, what is your thoughts on letting users Follow and being followed (Like Instagram Mentality) by each other versus requesting connections and being accepted (like Linkedin and Facebook)?
Or if you have a third option in mind, what would that be?
Or do you even think it is not necessary to define these kinds of social interactions? If yes, why?
Thanks 
Within an open community like this I don’t think it’s necessary to have an opt in/accept process because all content is public to everyone.
LinkedIn and Facebook are different in that they contain personal information.
I’m interested in your question. Are you working on a community platform?
Thanks for your reply @HAWK. Yeah, like I mentioned in my story, I’m the Sr. UX designer at Experts Exchange and they are doing the Q&A in tech area for almost 20 yrs now. I was working on some new projects and I thought it would be nice to share my question with this community
How do you feel about the Instagram tactic? They kinda have the advantages of both system, so they are still letting people follow and being followed, but they give users the option to make the follow access limited and wait for their acceptance, in case if they want more privacy.
To be honest I’m not a fan of either one and as you said it depends on the kind of the community, but I believe Instagram model satisfies those who have reasons to be private.
Of course! I had forgotten. Sorry about that.
I think the Instagram approach is clever from a gamification POV. People that are motivated by vanity statistics would likely increase their posting rate in an attempt to increase their following. I don’t see it serving any other purpose (in this kind of environment).