Auto-follow ALL Profiles OR release lists from follow condition?

My site, just imported from Ning, supports a very small group of learners studying a specialized craft. We rely heavily on photos (member and admin posted) and their accompanying comment threads (as well as on forum discussions). Over the years, these discussions around photos have come to hold significant information. Some members have left the group but their photos and the accompanying discussion remain to teach later learners. So it's important that all users of my site can see all those photos/comments when they view the site's Image Gallery. This goes for other lists as well, videos, etc. When members click on a menu item that says Images, Photos, or Videos, I want all members to see all the items that have been posted on the site. Currently, they only see the photos, videos, etc. posted by profiles they follow.

(I have used Profile Exclude to make suspended members invisible on the profiles list but keep their content visible to current members. But if that content doesn't show up on lists, it is inaccessible.)

I see two ways around this and may like to do both, for good measure:

First, I've installed the Auto-Follow module. Rather than inserting specific profile ids in the "Select profiles" field, is there a way to select ALL profiles there? I would like all new members to automatically follow and be followed by all other members so that they see all activity on the site and view all items in their lists.

Alternatively (or additionally), is there a way to make lists (of videos, photos, comments, etc.) show content submitted by all profiles rather than only followed profiles?

Aside from my specific need for users to see older content posted by former users, these functions would be beneficial for any small groups that want to maximize users' views of other users' content. In tiny groups, the more activity people see, the more engagement can result.
updated by @lesrinchen: 12/17/16 07:56:57AM

Am a bit confused here Leslie. Where have you used 'profile exclude' and in what context?
Also, if you have set some profiles to 'followers only' but then want all members to follow everyone it defeats the object a bit. By default in Jamroom all users can see all profiles and their content so why not just leave things as that?
I guess I'm just mis-understanding what you want to achieve - Can you be more specific?
Thanks
Pa


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Paul Asher - JR Developer and System Import Specialist

Hi Paul. I used the Profile Exclude module to hide suspended members from the Members list so that standard users can see who's currently in the program with them. You and I talked about this in a support ticket: My suspended-user profiles imported from Ning had originally been marked inactive. This made their content unavailable. I re-activated them to reveal their content and used Profile Exclude to hide them from the visible member list. (maybe there was another way to do this, but this worked.)

I did not consciously set any profiles to "followers only" and would love to unset that if I did and if it's possible. I want everyone to see as much content and activity as possible, regardless of who posts it. Looking now for where that "followers only" setting may have occurred and seeing if I can remove it.
updated by @lesrinchen: 09/15/16 12:17:56PM

I would love to leave things like that! I'm happy to hear that's the default, but it's not what I've experienced so far in the lists. SO maybe I did something right out of the gate without realizing it that inhibited the views. Maybe activating the Followers module? Don't know if I did that or it was done in the import. If I simply deactivate the Followers module entirely will everyone see everything in lists of images, videos, comments?

Disabling the Followers module didn't help...
There seem to be two different dynamics at play here --
one affecting viewable gallery and video content (this seems to be Profile Exclude excluding things it shouldn't),
the other affecting JrAction results (this seems to be related to Following).

Let's solve the first issue, first:

It seems the limitation on viewing the images in the site gallery is coming from the Profile Exclude module. Here's what I'm seeing: As master admin, when I go to mysite.com/gallery (by clicking what's now called "photos" in my top menu), I see 67 pages of images. But when I do the same as a standard user, I see 44 pages because I don't see the photos posted by profiles in my suspended member quota, which have been made active but excluded from the member list with Profile Exclude. I figured this out by removing profiles from the excluded list and adding them back on, and watching the number of images viewable in the gallery grow and shrink for a standard user. So clearly Profile Exclude is hiding content even though it's not supposed to do so. (The reason I installed Profile Exclude is so that those former members' profiles don't show up on the /profile page but that their content (images, comments, forum posts) remains as available as any other profile's.)

My aim really is just for everyone in my tiny group to see pretty much the same thing as everyone else when they look at /gallery and /video and at an activity feed for the whole site on the home page. And for that "same thing" to include content of all "active" profiles even those I exclude from view on /profile.

Sounds like you want an item list of all activity on the site listed by newest first.

When you follow someone you see what they posted in their timeline on your profile. As I understand it you want a list of what everyone posts in any profile anywhere.

I know you've used Site Builder before, so lets stick with that system.

Add an "Item List" widget to a new page, maybe call the page /activity it will be a page that shows anybodys updates anywhere on any timeline to anyone regardless of whether you are following them or not.

Widget: Item List
List Module: timeline
Order By: _created | descending

That should do it.

Then if some of your members decide that there is too much stuff in the main activity timeline and they want to keep track of a few specific members, they can follow them, and just get THEIR updates in their profile timeline.

One timeline location where everyone sees everything, and another that may not be used, if they want to follow specific people.