Are there different types of releases on GitHub?

Question

I have just noticed that there seem to be different ways to present releases on GitHub:

1. https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/releases:

2. https://github.com/exiftool/exiftool/releases:

These two ways can also be mixed in the same project, as seen here, https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/releases?after=2016.06.16:

What is the significance of these differences, and how can the author influence this? Is the only difference being a "verified" release? Why does exiftool not have a "Latest release"? And, finally, is this related to me not getting any release notification for exiftool, although I am watching exiftool releases and keep getting release notifications for youtube-dl?

Answer 1

The answer is, according to the GitHub support, that

the "Releases" page (https://github.com/rg3/youtube-dl/releases and https://github.com/exiftool/exiftool/releases) will show tags and releases.

exiftool is actually not making any formal releases - what is shown are tags. That is also why there is no "Latest release".

Also, this explains why I don't get any release notification:

We don't currently send release notifications for tags, even with "Watching releases" enabled.