General > General Technical Chat
How to tag someone in a post?
tggzzz:
--- Quote from: T3sl4co1l on February 28, 2024, 07:29:38 pm ---Dude. The solution to literally every single little thing you've raised here, is... just kindly ask the admins, they'll clean it up.
If someone's abusing the platform... they're abusing the platform, it doesn't matter how. Banhammer. That's the end-all be-all to misbehavior. No making-oneself-a-victim, no political intrigue, no imminent invasion of communism.
The worst possible thing you've even imagined is a, like, first someone would need to either create an army of puppet accounts, hack existing accounts, or find a password bypass exploit; and all just to target one individual with incessant @-ing, like, how self-absorbed does one have to be to think this would actually happen to them--? Obviously, such access would be quickly sold to spammers, the forums polluted with junk posts, no one's even going to look at the tag mechanism. Remember that such access goes well beyond this forum, and would affect all SMFs in the world; that's a big attack surface, and a big spamming opportunity if it sticks.
Or at worst, the whole spampocalypse happens, and they do look at the tag system, and tag literally everyone on the member list. You're not a victim, everyone is.
Either way, you're talking existential nuclear war on the forum as a whole, the @-system is a completely irrelevant piece of the puzzle, and the forum would be locked or shut down and restored from backups, until such time as the holes can be patched. It's a DDoS for everyone, not some measly "My Messages [1]" alert? Give me a fuckin' break, really?!
If you have a readability issue, or sensory processing or whatever, that's fine and understandable; it's also up to you, say to craft a CSS that diminishes or hides such annoyances. If enough users find such annoyance, perhaps integrate them into the plugin -- the correct venue is the SMF people themselves, ask them -- we have very limited ability to customize things here, as I understand it.
Tim
--- End quote ---
Er, stop hyperventilating :)
Nominal Animal:
There is a reason the Thank user does not generate active notification to the author of the thanked post. Currently, mentioning another user using the @ -mechanism does.
Why should the reasoning behind the behaviour of the thanks mechanism be different for the mentions mechanism? Goose vs. gander and all.
Thanking was already a subject Dave started a thread for. Why should the mention mechanism be any different?
If you think this is a strawman, I don't think you know what a strawman argument actually is.
Or would you prefer a Thanks also generated an active notification and an easier to find list of your thanked posts? I'm sure it would caress your ego, but I don't think it would help with respect to the quality of discussions, which seems more important than ego stroking to Dave, the owner, here.
T3sl4co1l:
So, hyperbole aside, a more reasonable take:
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on February 28, 2024, 09:45:57 pm ---There is a reason the Thank user does not generate active notification to the author of the thanked post. Currently, mentioning another user using the @ -mechanism does.
Why should the reasoning behind the behaviour of the thanks mechanism be different for the mentions mechanism? Goose vs. gander and all.
--- End quote ---
Well yeah, you get some stats on your account, if that floats your boat, there you have it, you can check it any time, sure.
But then what's a "mention" for? To draw attention, obviously.
The only meaningful argument, that I've taken in at least, is that it's a (currently unreliable) substitute for PMing someone. This is a correct take, I would say.
It serves the social function of being an in-public announcement of such; a beacon as it were. Which, doesn't really mean anything, but I guess if the tag-ee is a no-show in the thread afterwards, that can be understood as messaging a more active disinterest than their simple absence would be. Or at least, it would be if it worked reliably, but since it doesn't, it...really doesn't mean much of anything as it stands.
The main value, then, is simply to relieve the pressure of composing a personal message. It's more impersonal, just a tap on the shoulder, nothing more. Low information, low priority, simple and easy. It's also, I guess, more persistent: PMs are deletable, mentions aren't (actually, are they ever? that's a bit of a clutter issue, and not one the viewer can address, as mention-ing posts aren't editable by others).
And anything beyond that, is simply normal interaction. If someone means to pester you, they can do it anyway, whether posting in every thread in existence, PMing, finding other contact information if present -- and the remedy is equally identical: ask mods/admins, or law enforcement for that matter (online harassment is harassment in most any jurisdiction).
What in this am I missing? How is it that I have not perceived an active harm from this underutilized and poorly known function? Please tell me. How could I possibly be abused by it, in such a way that future admin action is not a just remedy? (e.g. ban offenders, just remove the plugin entirely, it's just a plugin, why are there whole threads on this I can't even--)
--- Quote ---Thanking was already a subject Dave started a thread for. Why should the mention mechanism be any different?
--- End quote ---
Because the point is to get ones' attention..? I'm not sure what else to make of it. Like, I have a "Mentions" section in my profile, it currently has all of exactly two instances for all time, and they are links to posts in threads. Clearly they are there to direct my attention, if I should so choose to view them.
It certainly doesn't do any good as a number-goes-up game. Is that how you see it--?
It's not like views, comments or retweets; those mechanisms are meaningless here. Also whether anyone does, or should, take stock of those variables, is another matter, but they are generally engagement and therefore reflect the spread of content. Threads show views, that's about all that you can hope for here (though whether they're unique users or repeat visits, would be another matter).
I could imagine value in cross-referencing certain threads, but as no one has interest in doing that, like, y'know, at all, as it is, there's hardly any purpose in compiling links and back-links into a web of knowledge on given subjects. Not to mention the lack of editability for users other than authors; a wiki this is not. (And, again, even less collective interest in managing a wiki.)
--- Quote ---If you think this is a strawman, I don't think you know what a strawman argument actually is.
--- End quote ---
The strawman is more in regards to tggzzz's imagined catastrophe, which it seems even hyperbole isn't enough to jar them into actually thinking about it, sadly? :(
Tim
PlainName:
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on February 28, 2024, 09:45:57 pm ---There is a reason the Thank user does not generate active notification to the author of the thanked post.
--- End quote ---
There is? And yet there is a thanks count and all that stuff. Nevertheless, thanks are a lot different to tags and take much, much less effort to spam.
Really, I fail to see a problem. Worst case, if someone should take to annoying someone else they'd have to post a zillion messages to do it, and the catastrophic result of that would be... a fairly large number you got to go looking for at the bottom of a menu.
I am trying not to laugh. And failing :-DD
thm_w:
--- Quote from: tggzzz on February 28, 2024, 08:51:39 pm ---
--- Quote from: T3sl4co1l on February 28, 2024, 07:29:38 pm ---Dude. The solution to literally every single little thing you've raised here, is... just kindly ask the admins, they'll clean it up.
....
Tim
--- End quote ---
Er, stop hyperventilating :)
--- End quote ---
Seems ironic after you got all worked up about strawman arguments.
--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on February 28, 2024, 09:45:57 pm ---Or would you prefer a Thanks also generated an active notification and an easier to find list of your thanked posts? I'm sure it would caress your ego, but I don't think it would help with respect to the quality of discussions, which seems more important than ego stroking to Dave, the owner, here.
--- End quote ---
I use a forum with a Thank notification feature, and its a complete non-issue. Its just a number at the top you can click on if you desire to (similar to what soldar showed).
It encourages useful/quality posts if anything, because it shows you that people found what you posted of some value.
Not a fan of how Youtube implements the functionality though (where it shows up along side replies, it should be able to be easily ignored).
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version