# Impersonate shouldn't clear notifications
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonate-shouldnt-clear-notifications/14808
**Category:** Feature
**Tags:** impersonate
**Created:** [April 16, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonate-shouldnt-clear-notifications/14808 "2014-04-16T18:44:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@brett\_zink](https://meta.discourse.org/u/brett_zink)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2014, 6:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonate-shouldnt-clear-notifications/14808/1 "2014-04-16T18:44:13Z")
I don’t think any activity should be tracked when impersonating. If I click the notifications button it should not clear the notification count. If I read a new topic it should still be unread for the actual user.
Currently it seems that anything I do as an impersonated user is reflected in the activity of the actual user.
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### Author:  [@haiku](https://meta.discourse.org/u/haiku)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonate-shouldnt-clear-notifications/14808/2 "2014-04-16T18:59:01Z")
I agree, I’m not sure of the purpose of the impersonate feature. In phpBB it was for testing out permissions, so the act was non-destructive. Here it just seems.. shady.
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### Author:  [@lee-dohm](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lee-dohm)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonate-shouldnt-clear-notifications/14808/3 "2014-04-16T19:08:53Z")
As I understand it, there are two use cases for any feature of this type:
1. View the state of the system as the target user would see it
2. Perform actions on behalf of the user
To me, #1 is more “view as user” than “impersonate”. Impersonate has the implication of passing oneself off as someone else to obtain abilities one wouldn’t normally have, for example “impersonating an officer”. Even impersonation in some computer credentials and security contexts is for a user or process to obtain the credentials of another user or process to perform some action.
And #2 doesn’t have to be nefarious. “I can’t figure out how to delete this message and I just want it gone, can you help me out?”
It sounds like you want an additional mode to simply View As someone else?
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### Author:  [@mcwumbly](https://meta.discourse.org/u/mcwumbly)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2014, 7:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonate-shouldnt-clear-notifications/14808/4 "2014-04-16T19:09:50Z")
There a few related topics if you search for ‘impersonate’
But basically,
> [@Add 'stop impersonating' link to user avatar dropdown when impersonating](https://meta.discourse.org/t/add-stop-impersonating-link-to-user-avatar-dropdown-when-impersonating/13806/2):
>
> We would need to start tracking that you are impersonating for that to work
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### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2025, 11:10am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/impersonate-shouldnt-clear-notifications/14808/5 "2025-12-04T11:10:03Z")