[RFC] Ability to @mention specific users in posts

[dellsystem]

Ticket: PHPBB3-13713
PR:
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Feature description

It would be nice to have a @mention feature, akin to what Twitter, Github, Facebook et al. have. The behaviour I had in mind is this: you start typing @someusername and a small window pops up showing possible usernames (maybe up to 10). When you submit the post, the username is linked to the user's profile.

For example, if I typed @naderman, it would turn into a link to his user profile (like this: @naderman) and he would get a PM or email (if enabled in his profile settings) alerting him about the topic. The extra JS-based functionality would be nice if JS is enabled, but would not be necessary for the feature to work - with JS disabled, no window would pop up, but mentioning a user would still link to their profile.

Caveats

• Open to abuse - what if I posted a hundred times and mentioned @naderman every single time, resulting in a hundred notifications for naderman? How can this be avoided?

Implementation details - to be discussed

• Editing posts - deleting @mentions should probably not do anything. What about adding a mention? What if you delete then subsequently add a mention?
• How should the mention data be stored? Or should it just not be stored at all? (In which case, how would it work in conjunction with the ability to add/delete mention?) Should it be stored on a per-post basis, with mentions that have been deleted from the post not deleted from the table to avoid users being notified about one post multiple times? Should it be on a per-topic basis?

Latest updates
- A new [mention][/mention] bbcode
- A new popup-up when you start writing @ after a space if you are in WYSIWYG mode
- @mention parsed automatically when the post is submitted (with a checkbox and an option to disable it, like for the smileys)

[callumacrae]

+1 so much!

When a post is first posted, all @names should be replaced with [url=etc and the user notified. From then on in any edits etc, they should not be notified (even if they add an @). This will prevent stuff like quoted posts notifying the user, too.


In order to prevent abuse, why not send a PM when a user is mentioned? If it is done properly, then I could add some as a foe (that blocks PMs from them, right?) and then would not receive any more mention spam from them.

[DavidIQ]

PMs for this would be good. I like the idea overall. This could then be plug-in-able so that if an admin installs some sort of global instant chat the mention would come up on it.

[MichaelC]

+1, I was actually thinking about how to implement this on phpbb.com for team members usage, while I was in the shower about a week ago.

Only 1 mention per user per post and a permission would stop abuse.

I don't think it needs any storage, just if a post contains @ followed by a valid username (unless in

Code: Select all

(urg I can't put code tags inside a code tag)) it will be changed to

Code: Select all

[url=userprofile]@username[/url]

and a pm would be made (which would be stored as a normal pm).

Edits wont notify the users.

[callumacrae]

You can put [code][/code] tags in [c][/c] tags, if that is what you meant.

[MichaelC]

You can put [code][/code] tags in [c][/c] tags, if that is what you meant.

Oh, on phpbb.com [c][/c] doesn't stop parsing.

[jsebean]

+1 +1 +1 I myself was considering to make an RFC for this after I saw on the bukkit forums (they make open source minecraft server with plugin API) someone did that and someone else got a notification. Would be really awesome if phpBB had it because I thought the idea was awesome.

[AliasM2K]

Feature description

It would be nice to have a @mention feature, akin to what Twitter, Github, Facebook et al. have. The behaviour I had in mind is this: you start typing @someusername and a small window pops up showing possible usernames (maybe up to 10). When you submit the post, the username is linked to the user's profile.

For example, if I typed @naderman, it would turn into a link to his user profile (like this: @naderman) and he would get a PM or email (if enabled in his profile settings) alerting him about the topic. The extra JS-based functionality would be nice if JS is enabled, but would not be necessary for the feature to work - with JS disabled, no window would pop up, but mentioning a user would still link to their profile.

Caveats

• Open to abuse - what if I posted a hundred times and mentioned @naderman every single time, resulting in a hundred notifications for naderman? How can this be avoided?

Implementation details - to be discussed

• Editing posts - deleting @mentions should probably not do anything. What about adding a mention? What if you delete then subsequently add a mention?
• How should the mention data be stored? Or should it just not be stored at all? (In which case, how would it work in conjunction with the ability to add/delete mention?) Should it be stored on a per-post basis, with mentions that have been deleted from the post not deleted from the table to avoid users being notified about one post multiple times? Should it be on a per-topic basis?

Really love the idea

[brunoais]

Even though I like the idea.
I still wonder if this should be an extension or a feature in the core. As many people like it, seems like it can happily live in the core.
Another thing. Personally I wouldn't like to have this kind of PM mixedup with the rest of the PMs, I'd rather have a folder specially made for these warnings. I think you should take that in mind while implementing this feature, don't force the user to receive the PM about this in the inbox, allow him to choose the folder to receive this.

[Erik Frèrejean]

Personally I wouldn't like to have this kind of PM mixedup with the rest of the PMs, I'd rather have a folder specially made for these warnings. I think you should take that in mind while implementing this feature, don't force the user to receive the PM about this in the inbox, allow him to choose the folder to receive this.

^ that.
There should be some sort of "notification" box which is used for these kind of notifications. I don't think that the end user should be able to chose, just add a new special box for these kind of notifications.