Following is not For You with the discovery turned down. It is a different product. Sometimes two.

How it works

Following Latest is a clock. It does not call the big ranker. Night Owl (search) returns recent posts from people you follow — including protected accounts — over a 365-day window. Every post is scored 0. Ads sit between conversations, never inside a thread. “Who to follow” only shows up if the page already has more than 10 posts.

Ranked Following does use the same scorer as For You. The difference: only people you follow. Discovery stays off. Scoring, author diversity, and the “don’t repeat the same topic” step still run.

For You itself can be forced into that same “follows only” mode if the viewer turned recommendations off.

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What helps

• On Latest, being recent and followed is enough. Time wins. Weights do not.
• On Ranked Following, For You math applies — but you only compete with other followees.
• A reply in a thread they already follow can stay on Latest even when For You would have dropped it. </aside>

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What hurts

• Counting on copy-link +20 while they are on Latest. The score is 0.
• Hoping strangers will fill Ranked Following. Discovery is off.
• Expecting an ad to split your thread on Latest. The blender keeps the conversation together. </aside>

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Next: What's missing

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