[RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Discuss requests for comments/changes posted in the Issue Tracker for the development of phpBB. Current releases are 3.2/Rhea and 3.3/Proteus.
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JoshyPHP
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by JoshyPHP »

leschek wrote:Thank you, it works. I feel kind of stupid now.
No worries. :D There are lots of characters that can be created with AltGr+Key or AltGr+Shift+Key, they're just not well known.

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jsebean
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by jsebean »

DavidIQ wrote:Because there isn't a better way of doing it right now without taking into account username variations? I mean I'm sure to you it would simply work by just using:

Code: Select all

@JoshyPHP
Which is fine but what should happen if your name had a space in it?

Code: Select all

 @Joshy PHP
Do we notify user Joshy or user Joshy PHP? A BBCode would handle edge cases like that in the following way:

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[mention]Joshy PHP[/mention]
The BBCode name is obviously up for debate but doesn't matter right now as that would be up to the extension developer to decide if they even want to use a BBCode. Once we have a proper WYSIWYG editor in place this will be much prettier plus even with that you would end up with a BBCode in the background anyways.
Why not do it both ways?
Eg. @Joshy would tag them assuming there is no space, but also include the BBCode tag for people who:
a.) Have a space in their username
b.) Do not have @ symbol on the keyboard.
leschek wrote:I would like to be able to mention user in this way:

Code: Select all

[mention=Joshy PHP]Joshy PHP[/mention]
+1 for this, though it would still be nice to be able to [mention]Joshy PHP[/mention] for people who don't want to hack around with complex BBCodes.
-Jonah

omniError
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by omniError »

My thoughts are: the @name syntax should be used for all cases except where it is impossible. For spaces perhaps a solution like @"user name" could be explored. Second, I think the bbcode [mention] is too verbose. Mentions are usually very quickly typed and the proposed bbcode is not, including the one above where you have to type out the name of the person twice! If a bbcode is unavoidable instead try [m]user name[/m].

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Pony99CA
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by Pony99CA »

omniError wrote:My thoughts are: the @name syntax should be used for all cases except where it is impossible. For spaces perhaps a solution like @"user name" could be explored. Second, I think the bbcode [mention] is too verbose. Mentions are usually very quickly typed and the proposed bbcode is not, including the one above where you have to type out the name of the person twice! If a bbcode is unavoidable instead try [m]user name[/m].
Presumably there would be a Mention button on the BBCode toolbar, so nobody would have to type it.

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AmigoJack
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by AmigoJack »

omniError wrote:For spaces perhaps a solution like @"user name"
No, quotation marks can be in a username aswell (and no, using ' as delimiters in case a " appears in the name and vice versa is no solution either).

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JoshyPHP
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by JoshyPHP »

Come on, "no solution" is a bit of an hyperbole don't you think?

And how is it "no solution" anyway? It does the job with few keystrokes and it mirrors the way quotes work.

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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by AmigoJack »

JoshyPHP wrote:how is it "no solution" anyway?
Because it'd still not support a username having both, like Jack's "solution". And this is not only a theoretical case - there are users choosing names based on optical reasons instead of literal ones.

And even now you could already encounter names like [i]m[​/i] which are pretty hard to deal with anyway once you don't want them to get parsed (but the rest of your post).

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JoshyPHP
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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by JoshyPHP »

But this is very much a theoretical case. phpBB does not allow " in usernames.

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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by AmigoJack »

True - wasn't aware of that one general limitation. Then " as delimiters are indeed an option.

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Re: [RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

Post by [/mention] »

Can we just accept that some usernames aren't mentionable, move on, and use an at sign like every other website ever?

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