The difficulty is just like I shared above - that explanation is fine for most. The issue occurs when users want details.
- mute = ZERO: perfectly clear, not sure how much more clear zero can be.
- normal = default: OK, but what is default? Normal is also affected by user preference settings like “Send me an email when someone quotes me, replies to my post, mentions my @username, or invites me to a topic”, and the content of the email is affected by other preferences.
- track = more: again, what is more? I agree with @tophee that the term notification is unclear. I always used the term to describe actions that appeared in the user menu. To me, the new/unread count is not a notification…
- watch = MAXIMUM: as you said, like mute this one’s pretty clear, give me everything!!!
Your list leaves out watching first post. As there is already a topic just for that, I’ll skip that hear. My thoughts (and confusion as to what the notification level after the initial notification is) are there.