Interesting: I just tried following someone on mastodon.ie with an unlocked account and it got turned into a follow request.
Has mastodon.ie silenced me?
If so, I’d like to know why.
CC @mastodonie
PS. This won’t affect you if you’re already following me. It will mean my posts would get hidden from the public timeline and wouldn’t show up in trending posts, etc., on your instance. Hence “silenced.”