Cookiemonsters

Imported from the pre-Redmine CookieMonsters TODO during the 2026-08-29 migration.

Original priority: P1 — Community experience and polish

• Add a unified signed-in notification center with a small bell icon for personal activity that needs attention:
  • notifications should include things such as new comments, new reactions, replies/mentions and other direct interaction with the member's own content as those features exist;
  • the bell is calm/neutral when there is nothing unread, and should light/pulse tastefully plus show a small unread count when new notifications exist;
  • clicking the bell opens a compact notification list without requiring a full navigation away from the current page, and each notification should deep-link to the exact photo/comment/screenshot/post/etc. when possible;
  • notification read/unread state must be persisted server-side and support mark-read / mark-all-read behaviour;
  • privacy rules still apply at read time: if the member later loses access to the target content, the notification must not become a backdoor to it;
  • when Gallery interaction identity is hidden from ordinary viewers, continue honoring that privacy everywhere; the photo owner may still see the true actor because the Gallery design explicitly grants the owner that visibility;
  • notification preferences can later let members mute noisy categories while important account/friend-request state remains visible through its dedicated indicator.

CM-TODO-ID:fbba17b25a3269da2859

Future notes, acceptance criteria and status changes belong in this Redmine issue.