Ah, just noticed that someone else had refiled this:

http://code.google.com/p/twitter-api/issues/detail?id=419

I guess this bug shows that it happens for XML as well as JSON then.

This fixes were all related to incorrect data when displaying lists of users. All of
the examples above are for individual statuses. It seems there is still an issue with
individual calls to /statuses/show having incorrect following elements.

I'm still seeing incorrect "following" data with users downloaded as part of the mentions timeline as well.

Calling, when un-authenticated:

curl  http://twitter.com/users/show/talios.xml?source=twitterfx

Returns 

  <following>false</following>

and,when authenticated.

  <following>0</following>

I assume '0' is some attempt to return true, likely a casting falure, since I am actually following this person.

So in summary, calls to http://twitter.com/users/show/<user>.xml returns 0 when it should return the string 
'true'

I'm seeing this problem on timelines of statuses.

Obviously, all tweets returned from the /statuses/friends_timeline.xml endpoint
should come from users I am following (and I manually verified that for some
samples), but still some of them have <following>false</following> set. It seems to
be at least consistant in a way that the same user always has the same value set for
following in a result set - it just is either always wrong or always right.

I'm getting inconsistent values in the "following" field of the result
> from /statuses/friends.json. This used to work but it started to break
> down a few days ago.
>
> Here's a sample output for an authenticated call for the user navgle
>
> [0] => Array
>        (
>            [notifications] =>
>            [description] =>
>            [utc_offset] => 32400
>            [favourites_count] => 1
>            [profile_sidebar_fill_color] => e0ff92
>            [profile_image_url] =>
>
> http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/118094065/70_normal.jpg
>            [following] => 2
>            [statuses_count] => 6
>            [profile_sidebar_border_color] => 87bc44
>            [followers_count] => 11
>            [profile_background_tile] =>
>            [url] => http://ymha.wordpress.com
>            [screen_name] => ymha
>            [name] => Young Mok Ha
>            [friends_count] => 37
>            [protected] =>
>            [status] => Array
>                (
>                    [in_reply_to_user_id] =>
>                    [text] => 어제는 회사에서 워크샵을 다녀왔습니다
>                    [favorited] =>
>                    [in_reply_to_screen_name] =>
>                    [created_at] => Sat Apr 11 01:13:48 +0000 2009
>                    [truncated] =>
>                    [id] => 1494364130
>                    [in_reply_to_status_id] =>
>                    [source] => web
>                )
>
>            [profile_background_color] => 9ae4e8
>            [profile_background_image_url] =>
> http://static.twitter.com/images/themes/theme1/bg.gif
>            [created_at] => Wed Apr 01 07:35:13 +0000 2009
>            [profile_text_color] => 000000
>            [location] => seoul
>            [id] => 28068985
>            [time_zone] => Seoul
>            [profile_link_color] => 0000ff
>        )
>
>    [1] => Array
>        (
>            [profile_background_image_url] =>
> http://static.twitter.com/images/themes/theme1/bg.gif
>            [profile_sidebar_fill_color] => e0ff92
>            [screen_name] => onlinsystem__
>            [statuses_count] => 0
>            [profile_sidebar_border_color] => 87bc44
>            [location] =>
>            [profile_background_tile] =>
>            [utc_offset] =>
>            [created_at] => Mon Apr 20 00:27:00 +0000 2009
>            [name] => intmktr
>            [profile_background_color] => 9ae4e8
>            [followers_count] => 8
>            [protected] =>
>            [description] =>
>            [following] => 0
>            [friends_count] => 961
>            [profile_text_color] => 000000
>            [notifications] =>
>            [favourites_count] => 0
>            [profile_link_color] => 0000ff
>            [profile_image_url] =>
>
> http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/147264030/675753_normal.jpg
>            [id] => 33353324
>            [time_zone] =>
>            [url] => http://dgfshfsjsj
>        )
>
>    [2] => Array
>        (
>            [statuses_count] => 3606
>            [description] => Father of 3 * Interested In * Health *
> Fitness * Outdoors * Social Media * Books * Blogging * Enjoying the
> spring weather
>            [profile_background_tile] =>
>            [utc_offset] => -21600
>            [profile_text_color] => 000000
>            [following] => 0
>            [profile_link_color] => 0000ff
>            [profile_image_url] =>
>
>
http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/59173692/WILSON_062_normal.jpg
>            [profile_background_image_url] =>
>
>
http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_background_images/4061967/Ronnie_Wilson.jpg
>            [url] =>
>            [name] => Ronnie
>            [profile_sidebar_fill_color] => 6E93CA
>            [protected] =>
>            [screen_name] => ronniewilson
>            [status] => Array
>                (
>                    [in_reply_to_status_id] =>
>                    [in_reply_to_user_id] =>
>                    [text] => Thanks to all who are wishing me a Happy
> Sunday, I'm sure to make the best of it, Don't forget to share a smile
> with someone today  :) 
>                    [favorited] =>
>                    [in_reply_to_screen_name] =>
>                    [truncated] =>
>                    [id] => 1558769587
>                    [source] => web
>                    [created_at] => Sun Apr 19 16:21:05 +0000 2009
>                )
>
>            [time_zone] => Central Time (US & Canada)
>            [profile_sidebar_border_color] => C9D2BD
>            [followers_count] => 64755
>            [notifications] =>
>            [favourites_count] => 50
>            [friends_count] => 68179
>            [location] => Kentucky
>            [id] => 16061242
>            [created_at] => Sun Aug 31 02:21:11 +0000 2008
>            [profile_background_color] => BDEDFF
>        )
>
>    [3] => Array
>        (
>            [description] => Manufacturing/ Product Development/
> Quality Systems/ Supply Management professional seeking Renewable/
> Alternative Energy employment opportunities.
>            [profile_background_image_url] =>
> http://static.twitter.com/images/themes/theme6/bg.gif
>            [utc_offset] => -18000
>            [profile_link_color] => FF3300
>            [statuses_count] => 9
>            [profile_image_url] =>
>
>
http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/133020637/Resume_Business_Card_normal.jpg
>            [following] => 4
>            [profile_sidebar_fill_color] => A0C5C7
>            [notifications] =>
>            [url] => http://bit.ly/cB5Kn
>            [screen_name] => robtewms
>            [name] => robtewms
>            [profile_sidebar_border_color] => 86A4A6
>            [protected] =>
>            [status] => Array
>                (
>                    [in_reply_to_user_id] =>
>                    [text] => My Mini Resume http://bit.ly/FpJHI
>                    [favorited] =>
>                    [in_reply_to_screen_name] =>
>                    [created_at] => Fri Apr 17 21:17:11 +0000 2009
>                    [truncated] =>
>                    [id] => 1545682960
>                    [in_reply_to_status_id] =>
>                    [source] => <a href="http://bit.ly">bit.ly</a>
>                )
>
>            [profile_background_tile] =>
>            [followers_count] => 747
>            [created_at] => Thu Oct 02 15:59:09 +0000 2008
>            [friends_count] => 1486
>            [profile_background_color] => 709397
>            [location] => Davisburg, MI 48350
>            [id] => 16561160
>            [time_zone] => Eastern Time (US & Canada)
>            [favourites_count] => 0
>            [profile_text_color] => 333333
>        )
>
> etc.
>
> It's strange that sometimes the "following" is set to 0 or some
> number.
>
> If I'm getting a list of my friends, it means the authenticating user
> is following them and the following should be set to 1 for all the
> results.
>
> If I make the call to /statuses/followers.json I get the same
> inconsistent set of following fields. Even followers who I am
> following are to 0 and I also get weird values.
>

(No comment was entered for this change.)

(No comment was entered for this change.)

I have a collection of account exhibiting the behavior and I'm working on the issue now. No need to add more 
accounts to this issue, nor more 'me too' comments' Please mark the issue by clicking on the star next to the 
title so I have an estimate of the number of people affected. 

There are two issues at work here:

1. The 0/1/blank versus true/false/blank problem. I believe I see the source of this and we will standardize on 
true/false when authenticated, and an empty tag when not authenticated.

2. When a user object is returned within a status element the following and notification are very often wrong. 
Almost to the point of being arbitrary. I'm working on finding the root cause now.

I have a fix ready for the 1/0/blank issue and will get that reviewed and deployed. I am guessing it will go out 
early next week.

On the incorrect following/notification when inline with a status I have tracked down the bug. I'm working with 
the person most familiar with that code and we're hoping to come up with a solution soon. I'll update this issue 
as more information becomes available. 

 Issue 528  has been merged into this issue.

 Issue 419  has been merged into this issue.

The issue I'm seeing is with user profiles via Json.

Using: http://twitter.com/users/show.json?screen_name=XXXX

Often returns null, or false for "following" (even when authenticated user is following).

As per comment #11, this issue was supposed to be investigated. Any new updates on availability of that fix?
Thanks

Update on the status of this fix: 

Please read:
http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk/browse_frm/thread/42ba883b9f8e3c6e

 Issue 583  has been merged into this issue.

the tag following can be either numerical or "boolean" apparently:
f.txt:  <following>0</following>
f.txt:  <following>1</following>
f.txt:  <following>7</following>
fw2.txt:  <following>0</following>
fw2.txt:  <following>1</following>
fw2.txt:  <following></following>
fw2.txt:  <following>false</following>
none of this is glossed in the api. What is the meaning of this xml tag?

I like that "7" in there...

grep tells no lies, There is a 7 in there somewhere.

grep "<following>" * >following.txt
sort -u following.txt >fsorted.txt
followers <following>0</following>
followers <following>1</following>
followers <following>2</following>
followers <following>3</following>
followers <following>4</following>
followers <following>5</following>
followers <following>6</following>
followers <following>7</following>
followers <following></following>
followers <following>false</following>
friends <following>0</following>
friends <following>10</following>
friends <following>1</following>
friends <following>2</following>
friends <following>3</following>
friends <following>4</following>
friends <following>5</following>
friends <following>6</following>
friends <following>7</following>

This is churn and burn on serveral thousand.

Hasn't Twitter officially (insofar as what Doug tells us is official) said that the
<following> and <notification> tags are effectively unusable and officially deprecated?

http://groups.google.com/group/twitter-development-talk/msg/a2a9eb4f1ae96fd5

It wouldn't surprise me if we started seeing rainbows and ponies show up in the
<following> tag - the seemingly random values we currently see no longer surprise me.

We will be deprecating the following and notification tags in addition to providing a new method that should 
always return correct relationship information: http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-REST-API-Method%3A-
friendships-show

This new method is on our deploy pipeline and should ship today or tomorrow. Rate limits will shortly be 
increased to accommodate the increased need for requests to this new method.

We'll be announcing a date on which the following and notification attributes will return null data. In the 
current version of the API (effectively version 1), these attributes will NOT be removed, as too many 
applications are currently dependent on their presence. Version 2 of the API will not include these attributes.

 Issue 778  has been merged into this issue.

Why was  issue 778  merged into this one?   Issue 778  is reporting incorrect results 
for <followers_count> attribute of method http://twitter.com/users/show, not the 
<following> attribute. Is the <followers_count> attribute deprecated also? If yes, 
what is the replacement?

 Issue 766  has been merged into this issue.

wtf?! 
Why the comment 25 has not been answered so far? Its almost one month, how are we suppose to get the followers_count information?

Is anyone even monitoring these issues?  Could someone from Twitter please post an 
update as to what is going on with the followers_count, and some kind of ETA and a 
possible work-around?