The bell: what its number counts, and what the dot means

The number

The bell counts only things waiting on you — decisions nobody else can make:

• memories, tributes, notes, names and words to review on a page you look after;
• someone asking to contribute, or a contributor suggesting an invitation;
• an invitation to you, or a page being handed to you;
• someone asking you to be a trusted person on their page;
• a proposal to show two pages together;
• a letter that has opened for you;
• a reply to your feedback;
• a reminder that a copy of your page is due.

Nothing is "marked read": each line clears when the thing is done. There's no list of everything that happened, because a count of what happened is a feed with a nicer name.

The dot

A small dot means there's news since you were last here: your memory was published, someone joined a page you're on, a page was marked Remembered, a letter you sealed was opened. The notices page shows it under Since you were last here, then lets it go after thirty days. Nobody is told that you looked.

Today

Above everything else, on the day itself: a birthday, the anniversary of a passing, a day a manager marked. A line each, never a number — see Days to remember.

What is never on the bell

Hearts and gestures, bookmarks, who visited, "recently added" — see Why there are no likes.