Those of you who create or update an entry before you read this might have noticed that the 'Private' tickbox has gone and has been replaced with a 'Select Entry Visibility' drop-down. (If you're editing an entry you'll just see which-ever setting the entry is set to).
This is because you can now create entries that are only readable by your followers. Not only that, but you can also decide you don't want certain followers to be able to read your followers only entries. This gives you, the diarist, a level of control over who sees your entries again (like we had before).
The user simply presses the bell icon on your diary or an entry to 'follow' your diary. They do nothing further. They're a follower now. But if you don't want them to see your follower only entries, then you can go to the Diary Settings (the cog icon in the corner of your Diary Homepage or any Diary Entry you own), choose the Followers tab and switch their eye off 😀. You'll see what I mean when you get there.
That's it. They can follow you, and you can say "nah-uh, I don't think so".
At the moment all followers are automatically accepted. You must visit the Followers tab to restrict access. This will change in a few days to give you the choice whether you automatically accept all new followers, or whether you block them all by default and have to manually 'accept' followers.
This is a very big change to the underlying 'permissions' system in the backend. I have tested it to make sure no information leaks, but please, for those of you who are 'beta testers' as it were, please do try to view stuff you shouldn't be allowed to. Test among yourselves to make sure you can't see other people's entries if you're not meant to. And let me know if you find anything out of order!
Other than that, enjoy the new 'Followers Only Entry' feature.
Feedback welcome as always 😅