Over on the Antique Roses forum (my other hang out) I saw a post explaining how to message without "following." I wonder if this isn't a recent change in response to our complaints (especially in our A.V. Round Robin thread!) about this subject? Anyway, now it appears you can private message anyone you wish if they have their settings allowing it, whether or not you follow each other. So, if this is something you want, go to your profile and click on update. Look for Advanced settings, and scroll down until you get to Privacy settings. There will be a drop down box concerning messages and one of the choices is allow messages from anyone. Click on that choice and be sure to update your profile at the bottom before you exit that page. It works!
Anne