Let's add the ability to opt-in to a notification when a post (question or answer) is 1) Edited, 2) Closed, 3) Reopened, 4) Some combination of those things. I think that single feature would address all of the following related questions and feature requests (some of these are marked as dupes of other questions/requests, in some cases IMHO incorrectly):
- Optional notification on an edit to an answer
(marked as dupe of Notify question OP (and those who marked it a favourite) if an answer has been modified) - Is it possible to get an Edit Notification on questions or answers that I up voted?
- Is it possible to get an Edit notification on questions that I Vote-to-close?
(marked as dupe of the "may be a bit related" question below) - Notifications when users edit answers
- Notify us when the question has been edited after posting an answer
(and its dupe A special notification when questions get edited) - Allow me to get notifications on specific down-voted questions
And this may be a bit related, but I don't think the OP wanted it to be opt-in:
We'd also need a way to opt out again having opted in.
It's a feature I'd find handy in various situations, such as voting to close a question which looks salvageable through editing, etc.
Fairly simple flow:
- Click a "watch" link or similar
- Get a dialog with checkboxes for what to watch
- Click OK
- The "watch" link becomes "unwatch" or similar; when clicked you're opted out again after confirmation
This differs from "favoriting" (the star on questions) in these ways:
- Favoriting a question doesn't make you receive notifications when actions occur on that question
- Your list of favorited questions is listed publicly on your profile (I would not want that for this feature)
- The number of people favoriting a question is listed on the question (it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing if the number of watchers were listed, but I don't see any real benefit to it, either)
- You can't "favorite" an answer
I don't see changing how the "favorites" feature works to support the above; favorites is too mature and already widely-used in its current form.