# Tracking button hover is misleading
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876
**Category:** UX
**Created:** [October 27, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876 "2025-10-27T20:54:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2025, 8:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/1 "2025-10-27T20:54:22Z")
At present, the `notifications-tracking-trigger-btn` gives “Tracking” on hover:
As you see in that example, the category is actually set to `Normal`.
The problem with the use of the word “Tracking” is that it is one of the options; therefore, it strongly implies that option is the active one.
It would be better to either:
1. Remove the text on hover _or_
2. Change the text to make it a bit clearer (such as “Tracking level”) _or_
3. Make the text on hover correlate with the chosen selection (if this is possible).
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### Author:  [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [October 27, 2025, 9:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/2 "2025-10-27T21:29:46Z")
Good point!
> [@nathank](#):
>
> Change the text to make it a bit clearer (such as “Tracking level”) _or_
maybe we say “notification level” and remove tracking entirely to avoid the confusion
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### Author:  [@sren-1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sren-1)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2025, 1:24pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/3 "2025-10-28T13:24:42Z")
same issue here:
> [@Configuring Default Notification Settings for Users](https://meta.discourse.org/t/configuring-default-notification-settings-for-users/285619#tracking-1):
>
> bookmark This is an #explanation guide intended to help understand the process of configuring default notification settings for users on a Discourse site. person_raising_hand Required user level: Administrator As a site admin, it’s important to understand how to set your users’ default notification preferences for tracking topics and receiving emails. These settings are crucial for user engagement and ensure your users stay up-to-date with the topics and discussions they care about. Let’…
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [October 28, 2025, 1:43pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/4 "2025-10-28T13:43:53Z")
I think you are right. Right now “tracking” is used as the name for a notification level within the dropdown and as a term for the feature to choose a notification level. That’s why it’s shown on hover, used as a heading in the guide and as the name of the section in your preferences where you configure the notification level. I think it’s good to use a consistent name for the feature in all those places but I am not sure if “Notification level” next to “Notifications” will cause more or less confusion.
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### Author:  [@sren-1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sren-1)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2025, 10:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/5 "2025-10-29T10:28:02Z")
> [@Moin](#):
>
> I think it’s good to use a consistent name for the feature in all those places but I am not sure if “Notification level” next to “Notifications” will cause more or less confusion.
Could renaming the notification level “Tracking” help solve the issue, e.g. to “Following” or “Observing”? Though the latter is semantically quite close to “Watching”.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [October 29, 2025, 12:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/6 "2025-10-29T12:20:19Z")
Maybe. I didn’t suggest anything because I was worried about how well using a different term would work in other languages. Translators would have to find enough different terms in their language, too. And for that, you need the context of how these different terms are connected to each other.
For example, the German translation of ‘watching’ is ‘beobachten’. For ‘tracking’ we use ‘verfolgen’, which is already like “following.” The translation of ‘observing’ would likely result in one of these words, too.
I also expect a lot of guides on how to use a Discourse forum to refer to the current terms used for the tracking levels.
I think renaming the feature as it was suggested in the first post could work better. I like the idea of removing the term ‘tracking’ as awesomerobot suggested, but I am not sure about “notification level” next to “notifications” in the user preferences.
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### Author:  [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2025, 8:07pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/7 "2025-10-30T20:07:28Z")
> [@Moin](#):
>
> I am not sure if “Notification level” next to “Notifications” will cause more or less confusion.
Yeah that wouldn’t be good! Maybe those pages end up merged in the end… they’re all some form of notification
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### Author:  [@ToddZ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ToddZ)
#### Post date: [October 30, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/8 "2025-10-30T20:59:33Z")
This is the kind of semantic stuff I compulsively dig into…
The way the tracking levels are named imply different subjects to me:
- _(I’m)_ Watching
- _(I’m)_ Tracking
- _(I’m)_ Watching First Post
- _(Topic is)_ Normal
- _(Topic is)_ Muted
I wonder if tweaking the names to be consistent subject-wise would help:
(_Topic is…_)
- Watched
- Tracked
- Watched for First Posts
- Normal
- Muted
or
(_Tracking setting is…_)
- Notify
- Track
- Notify on First Posts
- Normal
- Mute
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2025, 1:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/9 "2025-10-31T13:47:24Z")
Are we just talking about the mouseover helper text? I think it would make sense to follow the example of the reply button right next to it in the topic timeline, and use it to explain what will happen if you select the button in a few words. E.g. “Set your notification level for this topic”.
> [@Moin](#):
>
> I think it’s good to use a consistent name for the feature in all those places but I am not sure if “Notification level” next to “Notifications” will cause more or less confusion.
>
> 
Yeah, this is a tough conundrum. I think + Tracking is a good compromise for this spot.
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### Author:  [@ToddZ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/ToddZ)
#### Post date: [November 1, 2025, 8:30am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/10 "2025-11-01T08:30:20Z")
> [@tobiaseigen](#):
>
> Are we just talking about the mouseover helper text?
Nathank started out talking about the mouseover text, but I took it a bit further. One of his ideas was having it display the name of the setting _selection_, like “Normal”, rather than the name of the “Tracking” feature – because, as Moin said,
> Right now “tracking” is used as the name for a notification level within the dropdown and as a term for the feature to choose a notification level.
I suggested tweaking the names of the settings systemwide, so a.) they’d generally be more understandable, and b.) we’d no longer have to realize _my Tracking setting is… Tracking._ In my example sets, that choice would be named Track or Tracked – just different enough to be clear.
(Whether the mouseover used setting names, or your good suggestion "Set your notification level for this topic”, it would improve the situation nathank brought up.)
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### Author:  [@nathank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/nathank)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2025, 8:18pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/11 "2025-11-02T20:18:48Z")
> [@tobiaseigen](#):
>
> Are we just talking about the mouseover helper text? I think it would make sense to follow the example of the reply button right next to it in the topic timeline, and use it to explain what will happen if you select the button in a few words. E.g. “Set your notification level for this topic”.
Yup, this nails it! All of my looking at it was on the Category topic list, with the `New Topic` button next to it instead, so I wasn’t thinking that way.
> [@ToddZ](#):
>
> but I took it a bit further.
Perhaps this deserves to be broken out into a new #Contribute > UX topic?
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [November 2, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/12 "2025-11-02T22:16:16Z")
When translating, it is easier if a feature is renamed in all places at the same time. Then you can use the same term without having to spend a long time researching what you chose some time ago. That is why I would prefer to change ‘tracking’ for the topic/category/tag tracking setting everywhere at the same time, rather than changing the drop-down menu now and then, after some discussion, changing the corresponding setting in the preferences.
Of course, “topic tracking” would not be a renaming. Kris’ suggestion of “notification level” would be.
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### Author:  [@sren-1](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sren-1)
#### Post date: [November 3, 2025, 7:46am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/13 "2025-11-03T07:46:17Z")
> [@ToddZ](#):
>
> The way the tracking levels are named imply different subjects to me:
>
> - _(I’m)_ Watching
> - _(I’m)_ Tracking
> - _(I’m)_ Watching First Post
> - _(Topic is)_ Normal
> - _(Topic is)_ Muted
This kind of stuff triggers me too 😉 The naming of the options isn’t ideal — sometimes it refers to the **state** of a topic’s notification level, and sometimes to the **action** a user takes to stay informed about the topic.
It might be confusing for newbies, as the functioning of notification levels isn’t easy to grasp at all.
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### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [February 8, 2026, 11:27am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/16 "2026-02-08T11:27:44Z")
The notification level button always has a “tracking” tooltip/title, regardless of the actual notification level.
It seems this button is called “notifications-tracking” internally, but I would expect the tooltip to reflect the actual notification level.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 7:04pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/17 "2026-02-09T19:04:17Z")
> [@RGJ](#):
>
> I would expect the tooltip to reflect the actual notification level.
I also like the idea that the tooltip tells you what will happen if you click the button
> [@tobiaseigen](#):
>
> E.g. “Set your notification level for this topic”.
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### Author:  [@RGJ](https://meta.discourse.org/u/RGJ)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 7:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/18 "2026-02-09T19:20:05Z")
> [@Moin](#):
>
> I also like the idea that the tooltip tells you what will happen if you click the button
Hmm I noticed this very issue because I was hovering my mouse over the icon because I was unsure what it meant. Most of the time I am not looking to change it, I just want to know what it is at.
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### Author:  [@Moin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Moin)
#### Post date: [February 11, 2026, 4:47pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/19 "2026-02-11T16:47:46Z")
I think it’s now `Notification level: %{level}`
>
>
> This updates the "tracking" button to have a clearer title, "notification level:… {level}" — this was previously static "tracking" for all states, which doesn't tell the user much
>
> \
> \
>
>
> Based on feedback in https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876
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### Author:  [@awesomerobot](https://meta.discourse.org/u/awesomerobot)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2026, 10:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/tracking-button-hover-is-misleading/386876/20 "2026-02-13T22:57:48Z")
Thanks for mentioning it! I forgot to post 😅