User Tagging Question

[Citroënbender]

If I tag a registered user (presuming this is enabled here using the “@ username” tag, do they get a pop-up window to notify them - or does it just add one to their existing notifications count?

[russellw]

User tagging is not enabled here.

[Citroënbender]

Clears that up, doesn’t it? Cheers!

[raceteam]

Has it been considered? On some forums it works well as a useful feature.

[russellw]

Can't say it has but we can always look at it.

[Peuty]

I actually like the idea. Never considered that it would work well ina forum environment. Be interested to see what you find Russ.

[Citroënbender]

I mainly saw the benefit in being able to attract attention of a single preferred respondent to a post or situation. Limiting tags to one-per-post would possibly help it stay on track.

[russellw]

The standard VB product has a thread tagger (a system that allows user to apply their own keywords (tags) to threads) but one of the installed add-ons has a built in user tagger which apparently contains the following features in the standard version we have installed:

Emails:

• Email alerts
• Globally disable emails for any of the features

General Features:

• Ability to disable Tag list entirely for guests
• Globally disable any of the features

General:

• Statistics Page: Top X Thread Tagged, Top 5 Mentioned
• "Mention" alerts: Type @username to mention someone, and link to their profile. Email & forum notification
• Quote alerts: Email & forum notification
• Tag a user in a thread to alert them to the thread via a box above threads
• View list of tagged users above threads, with link to see all tags
• Profile Tabs: Lists both incoming and outgoing mentions, quotes and thread tags
• Control how many users to display in inline tag list
• Turn statistics page on & off
• Control BBCode for mentioned usernames
• Turn features on & off per category
• Globally disable email alerts
• Ability to set maximum mentions per post (default: unlimited)

The Pro version adds a whole lot more stuff that's probably not really necessary ...

• Emails:
  • Per-user email disable for any of the 4 features
• General:
  • Ability to tag all your friends by checking a checkbox instead of typing out usernames
  • Turn off alerts from everyone except friends
  • Hide forum notifications for individual features
  • Turn off email alerts for individual features
  • Turn tag list off
  • Control number of users displayed on Top X Stats
  • Hide "@" on mentions
  • Additional BBCode (Bold, Italic, Highlight) for mentions

[Citroënbender]

So it’s basically set up, but dormant.

I’d really strongly urge not going with the unlimited default; no relevant admin experiences but a strong desire to keep the FB style “tag all your friends so they come and make a superficial comment” trait away. It also would slow people from inviting all their mates to a dispute - and look at how the roundabout thread went without such facility; why risk amplification?

[raceteam]

The mention @ user in particular can be very useful - if there's a particular user who is knowledgeable with a certain problem and may be able to help, it's a good way of attracting their attention to a thread. I don't see the need to mention more than 2 or 3 users in a single post.


Eg: @Citroënbender and @russellw know quite a bit about this, they may be able to help.