# What is a notification?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-a-notification/77370>\
**Category:** UX\
**Created:** [January 6, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-a-notification/77370 "2018-01-06T13:20:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BlackKnob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/blackknob/32/93549_2.png) [@BlackKnob](https://meta.discourse.org/u/BlackKnob)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-a-notification/77370/3 "2018-03-22T22:09:18Z")

</div>

I still don’t understand what Discourse notifications are.  
First, the user menu displays a long list of events, which you can’t clear.  
There’s a “dismiss” button, which doesn’t dismiss anything, just marks all items unread.  
This behavior makes it really a log, not a notification list. This is also inconsistent with how notification system work on other platforms. There’s always a way to clear the list, and to choose which events should trigger a notification.

---

_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-a-notification/77370)._