Follow buttons and the logged out user

> Fred Wilson coined the term over 2 years ago

What? No. That's ridiculous. For as long as people have used the phrase "logged in" there have been logged out users. A simple Google search for the phrase turns up a thread† from 8 years ago, and that's certainly not the first either. Coined the term? Really?

† http://www.unix.com/unix-advanced-expert-users/25178-who-9-c...

I habitually hover over links before clicking them to see the url in the status bar.

It deeply unsettles me when I see a button for which this tactic doesn't work. Rationally, I know there's no difference; you could have an href="example.com" and just capture clicks to do whatever you want. Nevertheless, it still spooked me enough to stop me from clicking the button.

The solution proposed seems interesting, but still requires an account with a third party, in this case the feed reader (if not online, a downloaded native app).

Given the nature of self-updating browsers and devices being permanently with or around users, I suggest something else.

Let me follow whoever I want without creating an account, store these preferences in localStorage, then use it to build a news feed on the home page, just like a logged in user.

Then, unobtrusively suggest other features that can only be made available to signed up users, due to technical constraints.

(No, notifications are not such features; a browser extension that checks localStorage and raises browser notifications a la Chrome should be enough for non-logged in users).

Sidenote: They updated their WP plugin today as well http://wordpress.org/plugins/subtome/

I hope HN had a follow button too :)