Following a Swarm and a Skill

Following a swarm allows you to stay informed without active participation. Followers receive notifications about activity such as new comments. You can follow a swarm without being a member if it is visible to you. Restricted swarms can only be followed by users who have access rights.

What Does Following a Swarm Mean?

Following a swarm means receiving notifications about activity within that swarm, such as:

  • New comments
  • New content
  • Updates

Following does not require active participation.

It enables users to stay informed.

Notification Settings

Users can define in their personal settings whether they wish to receive email notifications immediately when activity occurs in a swarm.

If the setting is enabled:

  • Users automatically follow a swarm when they
  • Create a swarm, or
  • Join as a member

If the setting is disabled:

  • Users may follow individual swarms manually by clicking the Follow button in the swarm action menu

Managing Follow Status

  • Users may stop following a swarm at any time
  • Users may follow a swarm without being a member
  • Provided the swarm is visible to them

Following is a personal setting and does not affect swarm visibility.

Why Following Matters

Following supports passive awareness and organizational learning.

Not all learning happens through active commenting or posting.

Equally important are:

  • Observing best practices
  • Discovering ideas
  • Applying insights to one’s own work

Following enables knowledge to spread where it is intended to spread.

Visibility and Restrictions

Some swarms are intentionally restricted.

  • Invite-only or restricted swarms are visible only to authorized users
  • Users without visibility cannot follow such swarms
  • Not even Admins can follow swarms they do not have access to

This ensures both transparency and confidentiality within the same system.

Following Skills

Users may also follow individual skills.

By clicking Follow on a skill page:

  • Users receive notifications when new swarms are linked to that skill
  • Users receive notifications when new users add the skill to their profile

Following skills supports awareness of developments within specific competence areas.