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I think it would be good to enable the autocompletion for @username also for comments which don't need a ping, e.g. first comment to a Q/A or if only the OP and one more user is involved in the conversation.

Why?

This would make it easier to introduce new users to the concept of using @username to direct a comment to a specific user.

Imagine this fairly common situation:

  • new user ask a question
  • I leave a first comment asking for clarification - without @username because the OP is automatically notified and I'm too lazy to type the name by hand or it contains special characters I cannot type.
  • OP replies (of course also without @blub)
  • I get notified and can reply in a timely fashion
  • [optional: repeat this n-times]
  • another user joins the discussion
  • OP replies to me and I don't get notified and in the best case see their comment by chance some time later
  • now I have to explain to the OP that they need to use @blub otherwise I won't see their reply -> this is hard to understand for the OP, because it worked at first

=> I propose to (optionally) enable the auto-completion for all comments, this way I could address the OP with @username right from the beginning and the OP would easily know that @pings exist.

Of course I could greet the new user by explaining the ping system in my first comment, but I think this would confuse the user even more because they would wonder why it is not working until a third user gets involved in the comments.

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  • 11
    Yes times a thousand. Maintain support for the current pinging logic but add the option to always explicitly ping users per the rules of Who can be notified with this feature?
    – MonkeyZeus
    Commented Sep 5, 2018 at 12:36
  • 4
    Automatically populating the comment box (with all the @names that they are addressing) for users with a low flair would avoid confusion about to whom the comment would go. When the person with low total reputation submits their comment all but one @name would be stripped to make the comment conform to the 'single @ rule'. A few times I've seen people reply to me without using the @ and as a result I wasn't notified, it was only because I went back to the Q&A that I discovered the orphan comment - it might seem unfriendly it the person thinks that their comment is ignored.
    – Rob
    Commented Sep 5, 2018 at 19:08

1 Answer 1

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My Opinion

I think this can be a wonderful idea for new users to the site to explore the many features this site has since not discovering useful site features can be annoying at times.

I've gone through these issues, so I think this feature-request can be a major improvement to the site.

Some Advantages

  • New users will discover these helpful features
  • It would be very helpful for all users if this feature existed

Suggested Changes

I think it would be a good idea to add a little example of commenting and pinging in the tour page since commenting can be an important thing for the site since most new users always check the tour page so they can understand the site. So I guess you should also suggest that somewhere.

Conclusion

I support this, with all the advantages this may have, this is definitely a good option. If I worked for Stack Exchange, I would have added this feature already.

Note: Comment and Ping me your opinions below, if you did your already helping the community!

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