Do you think that Hubski's following mechanic is deleterious?

If yes, it's because you guys see it as something it's not. And that may be inevitable, because it resembles Facebook friending. But it's totally and completely just a way to determine what links get onto what feeds. The list of people I have in aquamarine on hubski is not an exclusive list of the only people on this website I can tolerate. It's an exclusive list of the people who I've judged to submit a high enough percentage of things I enjoy that I need to be following their activity. It's not perfect, and to be honest I could unfollow half my group and still see the exact same links because hubski is still a comparatively small place. So in that sense my link-filtering efforts are a bit pointless, but I anticipate that they won't be in the future.

I think you all get this on an abstract level but in a lot of cases it's still just a friendship button, or an agreement-with-comments button, to address tacocat's point. I don't see why. Following someone is not how you control whether you see their comments.