Track mentions

[desh]

Title:
Track mentions

Area:
notifications

Summary:
Enable users to track when they're mentioned elsewhere on DW.

Description:
Any time someone writes an entry with <user name="desh"> (desh) in it, that should fire off an event that I can subscribe to and be notified for.

Ideally, this would fire every time an entry is posted that I have access to and that mentions my name, every time an entry that I have access to is edited and mentions my name but didn't mention it pre-editing, and every time the access rules for an entry are edited such that I now have access to it and my name's in it. (It's probably a bad idea to also notify for all old entries any time someone adds me to their access list, though.)

The same would happen for new/edited comments (either as a separate "when I'm mentioned in a comment" event, or as part of the same "when I'm mentioned anywhere" event).

EDIT: There are a lot of variations and pros and cons discussed in the comments below. For those who are not interested in reading all of it, I'd like to direct you to this thread, in which a so-far-noncontroversial modification is discussed.

Poll #2387 Track mentions

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 51

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
11 (21.6%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
17 (33.3%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
19 (37.3%)

(I have no opinion)
4 (7.8%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

shorter username code with ping option

[noracharles]

After reading the discussion I changed my vote to "Should be implemented with changes."

I don't use facebook or twitter or buzz, but now I understand that it's about inviting someone to join the conversation.

My vote is for creating a shorter way to write usernames:

@noracharles for <user name=noracharles>
@nora_charles.lj for <user name=nora_charles site=livejournal.com>
@noracharles* for <user name=noracharles ping>

(I don't know enough about code to know whether an asterisk would be the best ping symbol, it's just a suggestion.)

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[nacbrie]

@nora_charles.lj for nora_charles

Oh, yes. Never mind the faux-html for plain old usernames, but the LJ usernames are almost three times longer than the actual usernames...

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[noracharles]

It's a nuisance, and I so often forget either the site attribute or the .com and have to go back and edit.

A shorter way to write usernames would be brilliant!!

[blnchflr]

I don't care about pings, but being able to shorthand usernames even further would be awesome.

Re: A shorter way to write usernames would be brilliant!!

[noracharles]

That it would :-D

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[carolyn_claire]

Seconded--I never remember that stuff, the way it's done, now. So annoying, especially when the whole point of social networking is to be social. Let's make doing that easy!

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[snakeling]

I have no opinion whatsoever about the notification part, but the shortening part is made of awesome :)

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[syderia]

The shortening part probably deserves its own suggestion (because it is awesome.)

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[noracharles]

I think so too! mark suggested it here and I made a new thread to give it more prominence and hopefully convince him to push it.

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[denise]

At this point, the options have diverged so much that somebody should probably grab the proposal and resuggest it :)

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[noracharles]

Yes. Someone like mark :-)

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[ciaan]

I'm against the specific @username terminology, just because, well, if I wanted to use Twitter I'd be using Twitter. But shorter usernames in a DW-specific format I wouldn't mind. IDK, dw-username or something? Like, dw-ciaan.

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[noracharles]

LOL, yes, that was my response to the notification of username mention. I don't find the idea of twitter style interaction appealing. But after reading the discussion, I understand how other people might. I'm happy as long as it's opt in.

I like dw-username, it looks nicer to me (which shouldn't matter, since it would change to username anyway, but it does), and also it's easier for me to type than @username on my keyboard :-)

@ is an alt key on the left side of the Danish keyboard, which means it requires two hands to type.

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[triadruid]

This seems excessively clunky to me. Would a link to a DW-specific comm be dw-dw-comm?

I don't really get the objection to @ - contextually it's a 'I'm name-dropping you' or 'I'm sending something to your attention', nothing more. I'm pretty sure Twitter hasn't copyrighted the syntax/idea, given that FaceBook has a similar thing.

Re: shorter username code with ping option

[fleeting]

Belatedly this.