# Any way to follow other users?

**URL:** <https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/t/any-way-to-follow-other-users/3811>\
**Category:** Open Topics\
**Created:** [April 20, 2022, 11:15am UTC](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/t/any-way-to-follow-other-users/3811 "2022-04-20T11:15:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Shoshannah](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/shoshannah/32/12734_2.png) [@Shoshannah](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/u/Shoshannah)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 11:15am UTC](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/t/any-way-to-follow-other-users/3811/1 "2022-04-20T11:15:36Z")

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I would like to be able to follow specific users so I am notified of their posts. This would help tremendously with keeping a dialogue going with people who have similar sub-interests in the course.

If following is not possible, it would already be helpful to have something like “friending” enabled, so I can easily find the profiles of the users that I have connected with and click through their posts.

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**Author:** ![tarmelop](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/tarmelop/32/27_2.png) [@tarmelop](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/u/tarmelop)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 2:44pm UTC](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/t/any-way-to-follow-other-users/3811/2 "2022-04-20T14:44:28Z")

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Hi @Shoshannah, that’s a great suggestion!

I’m looking into it, maybe we can add a plugin to add this feature, but I’m not sure if we’ll be able to do it during this round… I’ll keep you posted!

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**Author:** ![Shoshannah](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/shoshannah/32/12734_2.png) [@Shoshannah](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/u/Shoshannah)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 3:25pm UTC](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/t/any-way-to-follow-other-users/3811/3 "2022-04-20T15:25:16Z")

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Awesome, thanks \<3

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**Author:** ![tarmelop](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/tarmelop/32/27_2.png) [@tarmelop](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/u/tarmelop)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2022, 9:51pm UTC](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/t/any-way-to-follow-other-users/3811/4 "2022-04-20T21:51:51Z")

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Update: unfortunately we can’t activate the plugin in the forum, so there is no easy way to follow someone.

On the other hand, I’ve found out that you can follow your favorite users using an RSS reader (like [Feeder](https://feeder.co/), which has a nice browser extension). The feed format is:

- [https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/u/USERNAME/activity.rss](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/u/USERNAME/activity.rss)  
(replacing USERNAME with the actual username of who you want to follow)

I know it’s not ideal but I hope it helps, I’ll start experimenting it myself!

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**Author:** ![Shoshannah](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/shoshannah/32/12734_2.png) [@Shoshannah](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/u/Shoshannah)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 5:24am UTC](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/t/any-way-to-follow-other-users/3811/5 "2022-04-21T05:24:05Z")

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Thanks for checking this out! I’ll have a look 🙂

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**Author:** ![MissMissShelly](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/missmissshelly/32/5345_2.png) [@MissMissShelly](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/u/MissMissShelly)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2022, 9:48am UTC](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/t/any-way-to-follow-other-users/3811/6 "2022-04-30T09:48:57Z")

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@tarmelop it is tricky! I tried searching a user and got the mentions of that person by others but not that persons’ posts. Do we get notifications of replies of others in a thread in which we’ve responded? I was thinking adding to the conversation may be a way to get notifications…. But that means you have found that person to begin with…. Was also thinking you could ask them to @ you in their post but that could be annoying if a lot of people start asking that. Grin.

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**Author:** ![Stanislava\_Sojakova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Stanislava\_Sojakova](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/u/Stanislava_Sojakova)\
**Post date:** [March 6, 2026, 2:23am UTC](https://lcl-discuss.media.mit.edu/t/any-way-to-follow-other-users/3811/7 "2026-03-06T02:23:34Z")

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Hello LCL World!

As I prepare for the next cohort, I noticed this issue.

I made an [App script](https://script.google.com/u/1/home/projects/1OorUYc_TNrzz9cdIvMUeihNBIek9OgelyT5IYWzcP3dPs1MCF3ofCRHd/edit) that adressess this problem via the RSS feed mentioned by @tarmelop (thanks!) - you can use it to **follow other Discourse members and get weekly updates**. There is still work to do - following multiple people (easy to fix), have the email as soon as the person who is being followed posts (scheduling email to check posts often but sending only if there are new ones), not receiving posts that once landed in the inbox (relates with the previous point). It works with Gmail only, with potential tweak to send email to other address. Feel free to copy and build upon it.

I included a **Hypothes.is annotation “RSS“** (built upon API) that submits the annotations happening on top of LCL materials in the same email (only mine as a demo currently, as the [previous annotations](https://hypothes.is/search?q=lcl.mit.edu) redirect to old pages). It has similar TO DO as above.

[Hypothes.is](https://hypothes.is) is a layer that allows people to **lead asynchronous dialogue** on the margins of pages, regardless of bandwidth size, medium kind, and device type. This way, the comments made there can be anchored in the context of the material and connected to the other places on the web, forming a **virtual central hub** of inspirations drawing upon global collective wisdom and, reversely, influencing **decentralized learning circles** worldwide.

Let me know which features you would like to see in the script.

Thanks!
