Big Change in Protected-User Model

This week we rolled out a change that most people won't notice but for those who do it's a pretty big deal. The change effects those who choose to protect their updates—i.e., only allow those whom they approve follow them.

Previously, if you were protected you had to follow anyone whom you allowed to follow you. Similarly, if you followed someone, you were granting them permission to follow you. This didn't really make sense in a lot of cases. For instance, you may want to get news updates from @cnn but only wish to allow people you know to get your updates.

So, following is now de-coupled from approving followers. Here's the help doc for more details.

Thanks to @bs and others for getting this out.