turns out for the join in the controller to work the current user needs to have contacts to whom they went to, added a spec

features/follows_tags.feature

@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ Feature: posting
     Given a user with username "bob"
     And a user with username "alice"
     When I sign in as "bob@bob.bob"
+
+    And a user with username "bob" is connected with "alice"
     And I am on the home page
 
     And I expand the publisher
@@ -40,9 +42,10 @@ Feature: posting
     Then I should see "I am da #boss"
 
   Scenario: can stop following a particular tag
-    Then I should see "Stop Following #boss"
-    When I go to the home page
-    And I should not see "#boss" in ".left_nav"
+    When I press "Stop Following #boss"
+
+    And I go to the home page
+    Then I should not see "#boss" within ".left_nav"
 
 
 

spec/controllers/tags_controller_spec.rb

@@ -62,6 +62,13 @@ describe TagsController do
         assigns(:posts).models.should == [other_post]
         response.status.should == 200
       end
+
+      it 'displays a public post that was sent to no one' do
+        stranger = Factory(:user_with_aspect)
+        stranger_post = stranger.post(:status_message, :text => "#hello", :public => true, :to => 'all')
+        get :show, :name => 'hello'
+        assigns(:posts).models.should == [stranger_post]
+      end
     end
 
     context "not signed in" do