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← darkroom
Feature suggestion: Followers only profile
I feel like this is a basic feature on sites with some sort of followers/friends system. Currently, the privacy setting (under "Account" in the settings page) on AniList only has three tiers:
- everything public
- link only
- me only
I would like to propose a 4th/a substitute for the 2nd: restrict the profile, lists, and updates to following only. To iterate some reasons for this change:
- It allows users to be relatively private on the site, yet retain a social circle. We already have some features intended for a use like this in the form of private/public messages. Not every message is intended for a wide audience, and neither is every post.
- It prevents bots and other scrapers from harvesting user data. This should've been a concern a decade ago and it's even more of a concern now that scrapers are regularly used on the web to train AI without user consent. I wouldn't be surprised if AniList data did end up in LLaMA or some newer generation LLM. While there is no easy solution that is convenient, adding an option for usable private profiles would at least give some protection against mass data harvesting.
- It prevents stalkers, unwanted people from viewing user profiles. Every year, tools get more sophisticated. Usernames, profile pictures, shared links, unique strings are cross-referenced by humans and bots alike to track individuals across platforms. AniList users shouldn't need to cut all ties to their social circle because of some weirdo on the Internet.
- No noticeable change as an outsider. The default homepage is already on the activity of followed users. The activity of those with their privacy setting set to the new "following only" won't show up on global activity, only on forum comments. The chance of an accidental run-in with the error page of a "following only" user would not be great. Popular bots like Kusogaki would continue to function as they already require the user to be following the bot or to grant direct API access to the user's account.
- No large change in user experience. This is personal opinion, the way I see others and myself build a social net has always started by marking them as "followed", not prolonged interaction as "strangers".
- It re-enforces the right to privacy. AniList has already committed to the GDPR and includes the right to be forgotten. It's only natural to extend this to further privacy protections.
Some might ask: why "following only" instead of "followers only"? To that I say, the latter can't be revoked by the affected user and neither does it imply consent. The point of this feature would be to allow users to limit who can view their profile/list, "followers only" would defeat this purpose.
This could go alongside the already existing and implemented "semi-public mode", but I think adding this behavior to "semi-public mode" would make way more sense.
I understand this implies some technical burden, as does every feature request. However, I don't believe it is exceeding large, I'm not asking for a full-blown privilege system. Technically speaking, it would be a simple expansion of the "semi-public mode" to include a single check if the user requesting the list/profile is being followed. Having the activities be excluded from the global feed is already implemented for semi-public mode.
[Removed]
What a shame. I just wanted to do this today and realized that there was no such option! It's probably 7 lines of code anyways.
1 line in the router function on accessing /user/
1 line in the router function on accessing /activity/
5 lines of making an internal API call to check if they're in the follower's list.[Removed]
It would be strange. The reason I choose AL over MAL was the community aspect of things. Maybe I'll try AniDB.
I don't believe the reasons it's not been added yet are for what was stated, probably more likely it's due to things such as the ownership change and the amount of urgent bugs to fix (such as the following feed) taking up much of the time of the fairly small dev team.
And in general it somehow feels like a fairly low priority feature addition, if they are planning on it, at least compared to other features planned...Oh by the way...
"followers only"? To that I say, the latter can't be revoked by the affected user
...You can actually remove people from your followers...~ Just block and unblock them and done.
I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, ownership was always murky. I don't even know how or where the money is flowing. Taking into account the $5 donator option being most popular with the 863 paid members, they should have $4315 of income per month. I'm no expert in the finances, but that barely pays for a full-time dev without taking into account hosting costs.
That is to say, they are probably tight on budget....You can actually remove people from your followers...~ Just block and unblock them and done.
I actually didn't know that, cool. I still think the point stands.
The devs (just 3 peeps) dont get paid, its volunteer based, they work normal jobs outside this and this is at the moment the least of their worries lmao. They might give this consideration in half a year- a year (or longer, I dunno) since their priorities rn are getting the site as bug free as it realistic can be again + after that they have several things I think they much rather implement then this.