The “raison d’être” of Scholastica is to make managing an academic journal better and faster. But the introductory page of the site to add :”It provides an academic ecosystem around the activities that scholars do in real life — peer review new ideas, decide which to publish, and discuss new ideas to push knowledge ever forward.”
To discuss new ideas that may push knowledge forward, Scholastica sustains “The convesation” while allowing members to “browse scholars”. Suppose I visited your profile page and was very interested in your publications, your domain of expertise or ideas you exchanged within some conversations, I’ll have to visit frequently your profile for updates. Automatically “Following “ each other would enhance exchange and emergence of ideas , collaborative research or co-authoring. In sum, that would break isolation, wouldn’t it?