If I follow a person, not subscribing to a magazine, what does that do for me? Do I see their posts/comments somewhere; if so where?
Also, do boosts factor into that or are they purely to bump stuff up in the algorithm?
There really should be a 'following' tab on the microblog section that shows the boosts and posts of the people you follow.
Maybe also customisable feeds that can combine magazines/communities, people & tags in whatever combination you want, like a combo of multireddits and twitter's lists feature.