I can't answer all your questions but I can reduce some of it. Ashal purged followers who were inactive. My list of followers is also greatly reduced. I expect this a "house keeping" measure.   As far as not being able to follow people anymore that has been true on the site for about two years. LL was the subject of many hacking attacks then. One approach was to become a member and add oneself as a follower everywhere (thus slowing down the site). Ashal turned off the ability to follow
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