# Confusing wording for email notification settings
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [April 30, 2019, 4:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393 "2019-04-30T04:08:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2019, 4:08am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/1 "2019-04-30T04:08:03Z")
In the " [Add more granular user option levels for email notifications](https://github.com/discourse/discourse/pull/7143)" feature that was added in 2.3.0 beta 6, the “Send me email notifications even when I am active on the site” setting was removed in favor of separate “always / only when away / never settings” for messages and for other notifications. (`email_messages_level` and `email_level`).
This is a great improvement. However, the accompanying text “Send me an email when someone quotes me, replies to my post, mentions my @username, or invites me to a topic” does not cover all emails, especially those that are sent by the watched/tracked settings in Preferences - Notifications - Categories, while these _are_ being covered by that setting.
(Actually it seems like this was always the case, but it got _more_ confusing now since the explicit ‘always send everything’ setting was removed).
Maybe this could be worded in more broad terms (for instance: “topic activity notifications”) so it would cover the category notifications as well ?
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2019, 8:57am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/2 "2019-04-30T08:57:36Z")
Maybe, propose your exact changes side by side with the original copy in a reply here?
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### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2019, 9:15am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/3 "2019-04-30T09:15:17Z")
Sure.
Current:
> Send me an email when someone quotes me, replies to my post, mentions my `@username`, or invites me to a topic
Proposal #1:
> Send me an email when I receive a notification regarding a topic I’m watching, tracking, or participating in
Alternative:
> Send me an email when I receive a notification regarding topic activity
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2019, 9:45am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/4 "2019-04-30T09:45:03Z")
That seems _extremely_ vague. As a rule I don’t like to replace specifics with vagueness. So the answer is currently no.
I do see some other unrelated opportunities for cleaning up copy here though..
> [@RGJ](#):
>
> does not cover all emails, especially those that are sent by the watched/tracked settings in Preferences - Notifications - Categories, while these _are_ being covered by that setting.
I’d like to hear _specifically_ which emails you feel are not covered here, with examples. And please use text, not screenshots, so we can all save some time..
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### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2019, 12:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/5 "2019-04-30T12:24:16Z")
The following emails are covered by the “Send me an email when someone quotes me …etc…” setting but are not included in the descriptive text for that setting:
- emails that are sent because a notification is generated because a new post or topic is created in a category I’m watching because it appears in the list set by Preferences - Notifications - Categories - Watched
- emails that are sent because a notification is generated because a new topic is created in a category I’m “watching first post” for (set by Preferences - Notifications - Categories - Watching first Post)
- emails that are sent because a notification is generated because a new post is created in a topic I’m watching because I set it to ‘watching’ on the bottom of the topic
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### Author:  [@lucasbasquerotto](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lucasbasquerotto)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2019, 12:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/6 "2019-04-30T12:37:11Z")
Could be like the following:
> Send me an email when someone quotes me, replies to my post, mentions my `@username` , or invites me to a topic, and also regarding categories and topics I’m watching.
Maybe the text is a bit too long, but I think it is clear about what it does.
---
### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2020, 10:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/7 "2020-10-24T22:30:05Z")
> [@lucasbasquerotto](#):
>
> and also regarding categories and topics I’m watching
I am trying to write a summary of the notification and email notification regime and finding it difficult, but this thread, and in particular this wording, has helped.
> [@RGJ](#):
>
> Send me an email when I receive a notification regarding a topic I’m watching, tracking, or participating in
In relation to this one, my current understanding is that no email is sent for anything that is merely tracked (your subsequent helpful summary reflected this).
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2020, 10:53am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/8 "2020-10-25T10:53:36Z")
Here is what I have come up with so far. It follows a paragraph about the latest page, notification page and the numerical count.
> You can apply the following levels to categories, tags or topics:
>
> - **Watching** — Notified: new topics and replies. Counted: new topics and replies.
> - **Tracking** — Notified: only if someone replies to you. Counted: new topics and replies.
> - **Watching first post** (category only) — Notified: new topics in category, but not replies. Counted: new topics.
> - **Normal** — Notified: only if someone replies to you. Counted: nothing.
> - **Muted** — Notified: nothing. Counted: nothing.
and
> By default, if you are away from the forum, you will be sent an email for anything you are **Watching** or **Watching first post**.
Before I tidy up the wording, could you possibly check it for accuracy? @RGJ
Thanks.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2020, 8:29am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/9 "2020-10-28T08:29:38Z")
When I wrote the above I thought that the “count” mentioned in “notification levels” was the number in the top right.
Now I realise that number is just the number of notifications. It wouldn’t make sense otherwise.
The “count” must be one of the per-topic numbers which appear to the right of the topic name when listed - probably the “unread” number which appears in a blue circle.
I’ll update this if I discover that this is wrong too!
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### Author:  [@JonathanShaw](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JonathanShaw)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2021, 3:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/10 "2021-07-31T15:56:57Z")
This confused me for a bit. The fact that watching is missing altogether from the email preferences text made me wonder if emails got sent at all for watching notifications.
Currently it says:
“Send me an email when someone quotes me, replies to my post, mentions my @username, or invites me to a topic”
AFAICS it should say:
“Send me an email when someone quotes me, replies to my post, mentions my @username, invites me to a topic, replies to a topic I’m watching, or starts a topic in a category or tag I’m watching.”
Maybe this could be shortened to:
“Send me an email when someone quotes me, replies to me, mentions me, invites me, replies to a topic I’m watching, or starts a topic where I’m watching.”
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### Author:  [@Simon\_Manning](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Simon_Manning)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2021, 2:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/11 "2021-08-20T14:47:33Z")
> [@JonathanShaw](#):
>
> This confused me for a bit. The fact that watching is missing altogether from the email preferences text made me wonder if emails got sent at all for watching notifications.
I was similarly confused by this with a Discourse instance I’ve set up to replace some mailing lists. I didn’t want to make the default behaviour be mailing list ish so I needed to provide instructions for users that want to keep a mailing list like experience. (Watching desired categories, rather than receiving everything)
The related preference above is titled with this:
> Send me an email when someone messages me
So I have customised the text on our instance to change this:
> Send me an email when someone quotes me, replies to my post, mentions my @username, or invites me to a topic
into this:
> Send me an email when I receive any other notification
I’m not entirely convinced it’s the right wording but I do think it works well with related texts, such as when choosing to watch a category:
> You will automatically watch all topics in this category. You will be notified of every new post in every topic, and a count of new replies will be shown.
---
### Author:  [@mattdm](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mattdm)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2021, 4:35pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/12 "2021-11-03T16:35:42Z")
I am definitely suffering from this. I have a lot of users who are used to mailing lists and I’m trying to bring them on board gently and helpfully.
> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> That seems _extremely_ vague. As a rule I don’t like to replace specifics with vagueness. So the answer is currently no.
Jeff, I see that concern, but it _also_ seems bad to completely leave out a major specific situation. What about:
> Send me an email for all notifications, including watched ~~and tracked~~ topics, and when someone quotes me, replies to my post, mentions my @username, or invites me to a topic.
It _is_ all notifications, right?
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2021, 5:22pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/13 "2021-11-03T17:22:33Z")
> [@mattdm](#):
>
> watched and tracked topics
I don’t think you get emails for tracked topics.
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### Author:  [@mattdm](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mattdm)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2021, 5:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/14 "2021-11-03T17:30:00Z")
> [@Jonathan5](#):
>
> I don’t think you get emails for tracked topics.
Ah yeah, like I said, I find it confusing. 🙂 I’ll edit the above.
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2021, 5:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/15 "2021-11-03T17:57:02Z")
The default wording is definitely deficient.
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### Author:  [@mattdm](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mattdm)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2021, 3:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/16 "2021-12-11T15:30:56Z")
So, I’m going to do this for my sites:
* * *
`js.user.email_messages_level`, which defaults to “Send me an email when someone messages me”, becomes:
> Send me an email when I receive a personal message
This matches the term “personal message” used in the preference to enable / disable personal messages from other members.
* * *
`js.user.email_level.title`, which defaults to “Send me an email when someone quotes me, replies to my post, mentions my @username, or invites me to a topic”, becomes:
> Send me an email for all notifications. This includes posts in watched topics, categories, and tags; and when someone quotes me, replies to my post, or mentions my @username
(We don’t have invites enabled, so I left that out.)
* * *
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2021, 3:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/17 "2021-12-11T15:37:45Z")
> [@mattdm](#):
>
> Send me an email for all notifications. This includes posts in watched topics, categories, and tags; and when someone quotes me, replies to my post, or mentions my @username
You could get rid of “all” and say “… for notifications, including …”
Or even identify all of them and get rid of “includes” or “including” too.
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### Author:  [@mattdm](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mattdm)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2021, 3:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/18 "2021-12-11T15:41:44Z")
> [@Jonathan5](#):
>
> You could get rid of “all” and say “… for notifications, including …”
Yeah, that makes sense, especially given that the options you can pick are “always”, “only when away”, and “never”.
> [@Jonathan5](#):
>
> Or even identify all of them and get rid of “includes” or “including” too.
I am not confident that I can identify all of them. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [December 11, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/19 "2021-12-11T15:45:41Z")
> [@mattdm](#):
>
> I am not confident that I can identify all of them. 🙂
Wait for @JammyDodger to [publish his thesis](https://meta.discourse.org/t/send-me-an-email-when-someone-messages-me/211695/10) on that!
---
### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2022, 7:17pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/confusing-wording-for-email-notification-settings/116393/21 "2022-01-13T19:17:21Z")
This text was updated, and now says:
> Email me when I am quoted, replied to, my @username is mentioned, or when there is new activity in my watched categories, tags or topics.