# What is the difference between "entered" and "read"?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [13 Mayo, 2016 16:12 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199 "2016-05-13T16:12:03Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@rhyolight](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rhyolight)
#### Post date: [13 Mayo, 2016 16:12 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199/1 "2016-05-13T16:12:03Z")
On the [users page](https://discourse.numenta.org/users?order=topics_entered), what’s the difference between a user “entering” a topic vs “reading” a topic? Is there some count of how long a user is viewing a post?
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### Author:  [@TechnoBear](https://meta.discourse.org/u/TechnoBear)
#### Post date: [13 Mayo, 2016 16:43 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199/2 "2016-05-13T16:43:05Z")
“Entered” is topics entered; “read” is posts read.
(If you can mouse over those headings, there is a tooltip which clarifies this.)
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### Author:  [@rhyolight](https://meta.discourse.org/u/rhyolight)
#### Post date: [13 Mayo, 2016 16:45 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199/3 "2016-05-13T16:45:27Z")
That didn’t answer my question. The tooltip simply restates the obvious.
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### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [13 Mayo, 2016 16:46 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199/4 "2016-05-13T16:46:36Z")
You can enter a topic, but you might not read all of the posts in said topic. So Topics Entered will reflect you opened/entered that topic. Posts read will indicate the number of posts that had that blue dot disappear, meaning you read it.
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### Author:  [@steko](https://meta.discourse.org/u/steko)
#### Post date: [13 Mayo, 2016 18:10 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199/5 "2016-05-13T18:10:08Z")
A good explanation, thanks! The concept is super confusing since nowhere else the phrasing “enter the topic” is used. And it’s also difficult to translate in the languages I know without long paraphrases.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [13 Mayo, 2016 18:17 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199/6 "2016-05-13T18:17:14Z")
We could change it to “visited”, but that’s already used for whole-site visits.
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### Author:  [@DeanMarkTaylor](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DeanMarkTaylor)
#### Post date: [13 Mayo, 2016 20:08 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199/7 "2016-05-13T20:08:52Z")
“Opened” maybe…
English oddness - you can “open an email” or “open a message” to read it - but if you “open a topic” you are perhaps creating rather than reading it?
EDIT: “Viewed”? - currently you count “views” of a topic.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [13 Mayo, 2016 20:26 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199/8 "2016-05-13T20:26:32Z")
Good ideas 🍻
- Opened
- Viewed
I think Viewed is really strong because you’re right, we _do_ count that as a topic view and everyone intuitively understands you can’t “view” any reply independently of the topic itself..
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [13 Mayo, 2016 21:17 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199/9 "2016-05-13T21:17:50Z")
OK, changed and now consistent with changes elsewhere, we do use “Viewed” in other places to say this, e.g. “topic views”. But still, implicit and unstated in the headers is that **one column is about reading topics and the other is about reading replies**.
(Well, I guess the tooltip does add the words “replies” and “topics” ..)
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [13 Mayo, 2016 21:17 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-the-difference-between-entered-and-read/44199/10 "2016-05-13T21:17:55Z")