# Actual difference between "tracked" and "watching first post"

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/actual-difference-between-tracked-and-watching-first-post/61036
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [4월 15, 2017, 2:43오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/actual-difference-between-tracked-and-watching-first-post/61036 "2017-04-15T14:43:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 18

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### Author: ![jomaxro](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jomaxro/32/126216_2.png) [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [4월 17, 2017, 6:17오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/actual-difference-between-tracked-and-watching-first-post/61036/18 "2017-04-17T18:17:38Z")

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Consider me confused…

Back when Watching First Post (then Following) was first developed, it was _independent_ of Tracking. I requested that there be an option to choose tracking or normal after the first notification, but that was not shared as an option. From what I can tell on my instance, after getting the notification for watching first post, my notification state is normal.

**Discussion reference:**

> [@Get notified of new topics, but not posts](https://meta.discourse.org/t/get-notified-of-new-topics-but-not-posts/12809/51):
>
> Can this new notification level not be exclusive of Tracking? If I am understanding this correctly, if I choose to follow a category, I’ll get a notification (and thus an email) for every new topic, but will not receive further emails, nor will I see unread counts on the topic. I would very much like to receive an email for the first post only, while still seeing an unread count when I visit the site, without needing to track each topic after I get the first email.

> [@Get notified of new topics, but not posts](https://meta.discourse.org/t/get-notified-of-new-topics-but-not-posts/12809/52):
>
> No, it cannot. Adding Boolean complexity is unwelcome. The idea is that you haven’t decided if you care about everything in this category, so when you get notified on creation of each topic, at that point you personally decide on a topic by topic basis which you care about. Either by replying which is an automatic track, or an explicit click or tap on the topic’s notification controls.

**Screenshots:**

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/f/e/fe4387ad3bcf9605273f47a4bafcd61b1dfeb7d4.png)  
 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/d/c/dcf09a944c4e537a4e53572e08c966af2d918ba7.jpg)

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