Question: In the light of the [recently-added feature](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/3155/show-updates-to-favorite-questions-in-recent-activity/3808#3808) to automatically notify the user of any changes to "favorited" questions, this term "favorite" is becoming less and less accurate. [Some users don't even realize that the best way to "follow" a question is to click the star icon](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/53114/loads-of-comments-still-miss-intended-recipient/53116#53116) (see the first comment). In fact, they are pretty much equivalent now -- but I feel that the term "favorite" does not really accurately describe its most common use.

Personally, I don't "favorite" some questions purely because of the wording -- I may want to follow question X (e.g. if I have asked a question as a comment), but I don't want to imply that I think it is a *good* question, let alone a favourite of mine. If this classification were renamed "followed" or "subscribed", I would be much more willing to temporarily click the little star in order to receive change notifications.

Alternatively, "favorite" questions and "followed" questions could be treated separately -- the former would go back to how they were before this new feature (users are rewarded, via badges, for the number of users who say they like the question), and the change notifications are moved to the new designation of "followed questions". However, I'm not yet convinced that there needs to be a distinction between these two states; I'm interested in what others think.

Answer: 
The name “favorite” is definitely misleading. E.g. see [Why not get reputation when your question is marked a favorite by somebody?](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/8457/why-not-get-reputation-when-your-question-is-marked-a-favorite-by-somebody/97314#97314) 
If favorites will be renamed to BOOKMARKs, it will avoid confusion.
If it's your "favorite", why wouldn't you be interested in things happening to it?

It just seems odd to me that one would say 

> 
> This question is one of my favorites!
> 
> 
> 

And then

> 
> ... but I am totally uninterested in any new answers or changes to it!
> 
> 
> 

That said, there is this request, which I could support:  

<https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/51947/allow-users-to-opt-out-of-all-favorite-notifications>