# Muted topic is completely hidden
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 24, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690 "2017-10-24T14:00:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@savef](https://meta.discourse.org/u/savef)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/1 "2017-10-24T14:00:55Z")
Hi, I’m experiencing what I think is a bug on my private forum but maybe somebody can tell me if I’m just misunderstanding something.
There is a topic which I marked as _muted_ so I would no longer get its notifications, but doing so completely hides this topic and the only way I have found to access it is with a direct link.
I am **not** able to see the topic via:
- The landing page (categories) right-hand _Latest_ column.
- The dedicated _Latest_ page.
- The category index that this topic is a child of.
A little bit about my setup:
- I am an admin on this forum.
- The category can only be accessed by a specific user group.
- I am not a member of this user group.
Where am I supposed to be able to find this topic listed? Personally I would find it reasonable for a muted topic to appear in all 3 of the lists mentioned above, but the category index especially.
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### Author:  [@dax](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dax)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2017, 2:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/2 "2017-10-24T14:54:15Z")
As you can see in the Muted description “You will never be notified of anything about this topic and **it will not appear in the Latest** ”
So it’s not a bug but the desired behavior. Why don’t you simply mark that topic as Normal? You will be notified only if someone mention your name or reply directly to you.
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### Author:  [@savef](https://meta.discourse.org/u/savef)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/3 "2017-10-24T15:26:31Z")
Hi, thanks for the explanation. I didn’t previously understand the meaning of _Normal_, I used to think it meant set the topic’s notification settings to _normal for me_, which would be _email me about everything_. I had that backwards but I think I get it now so in future I will know how to handle it.
> [@Trash](#):
>
> Why don’t you simply mark that topic as Normal?
Hypothetically speaking… how would I even get into this post to change it from _Muted_ to _Tracking_? Such as if I muted it accidentally, just changed my mind, or had misunderstandings about how the tracking system worked (😊).
I now accept that it’s understandable that muted topics don’t appear under the Categories _Latest_ section or the _Latest_ page. However I think if I enter a category I should be able to see all of the topics in there, or at least some indication that there are hidden topics.
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### Author:  [@savef](https://meta.discourse.org/u/savef)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2017, 1:19pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/4 "2017-10-25T13:19:03Z")
@codinghorror, @zogstrip: To reiterate, after marking a topic as _Muted_, how do I get back into it to mark it as _Normal_ if I change my mind?
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### Author:  [@Osama](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Osama)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2017, 2:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/5 "2017-10-25T14:01:58Z")
Appending `?state=muted` to /latest
[https://meta.discourse.org/latest?state=muted](https://meta.discourse.org/latest?state=muted)
will show you all topics that are muted for you.
You can find that link in your preferences under the Categories tab, below the muted categories field.
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### Author:  [@savef](https://meta.discourse.org/u/savef)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2017, 3:44pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/6 "2017-10-25T15:44:01Z")
> You can find that link in your preferences under the Categories tab, below the muted categories field.
Thank you! That’s useful to know.
Personally I think that _Muted_ completely hiding these topics is way overkill, the name implies that I am muting topic notifications, not erasing it from my whole forum experience.
I don’t think that the full explanation text (_You will never be notified of anything about this topic, and it will not appear in latest._) at all clearly explains the consequences of this action (and this is forgiving that the full text is only shown in small font in a menu, the main text in the page is only: _You are ignoring all notifications on this topic._).
But if this is all working as intended then so be it, thanks Trash and Osama for the explanations. 🙂
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### Author:  [@volas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/volas)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/7 "2018-12-30T14:36:54Z")
I think **muted** should not **hide** category from category list, and affect only Latest/Unread/(maybe)Top and Notifications.
_Due to misunderstanding set important category with huge amount of new topics as muted by default for new users, and only today realized what I had done_
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### Author:  [@FoohonPie](https://meta.discourse.org/u/FoohonPie)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2018, 3:30pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/8 "2018-12-30T15:30:31Z")
I hadn’t realized it worked this way. This seems strange given that the option is for “Tracking”, and the other options are all only for notifications.
The “Hide” behavior seems like a better fit as its own action alongside bookmark, flag, etc.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2018, 6:56pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/9 "2018-12-30T18:56:55Z")
You are talking about something different than the first post. The first post is on muting a topic, you are referring to muting a category.
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### Author:  [@volas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/volas)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2018, 1:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/10 "2018-12-31T01:28:41Z")
Oh, I see. But still related - in both cases “Muted” does not mean what it should be.
In topic description:
No word that topic will be **hidden** from Category page, only in Latest.
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### Author:  [@Aneta\_Zelek](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Aneta_Zelek)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2020, 9:51am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/11 "2020-04-01T09:51:38Z")
This option should hide on “ **Suggested Topics** ” list too? Sometimes I see muted topic in this section…
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### Author:  [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2023, 11:58pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/muted-topic-is-completely-hidden/72690/12 "2023-01-09T23:58:05Z")
> [@dax](#):
>
> As you can see in the Muted description “You will never be notified of anything about this topic and **it will not appear in the Latest** ”
>
> So it’s not a bug but the desired behavior.
This caught me out today. I thought the muted topics would disappear from Latest but expected them still to appear on the category page. At least the solution was in this topic here.