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Q&A Can I use @Username to notify users from within my question or answer?

Let's please not! I know different people have different views on this, but if the focus is on the question and on getting quality answers, then why would it matter who answers, to the extent that ...

posted 4y ago by Canina‭  ·  edited 4y ago by Canina‭

Answer
#3: Post edited by user avatar Canina‭ · 2020-07-06T12:46:38Z (almost 4 years ago)
  • **Let's please not!**
  • I know different people have different views on this, but if the focus is on the **question** and on getting quality answers, then why would it matter who answers, to the extent that you actually need to notify a particular user about your question?
  • If someone is interested in a particular subject area, that person is likely to keep an eye out for questions about that anyway. Therefore, it seems likely that they would see the question whether or not there is some kind of explicit notification mechanism implemented.
  • If someone says in a comment "you really should break that question into its own post so it can get the attention it deserves", then a follow-up comment with a link might be reasonable; but that's already possible, and doesn't require naming the user in question in the question. Heck, the user might not even *want* their name perpetually associated with the question.
  • This kind of feature might work reasonably within a closed team, where you might otherwise e-mail or IM a particular person with your question. However, I don't think it's particularly relevant to the use case of *public* Q&A.
  • At an absolute minimum, **if this gets implemented**, it needs to be optional and *selectable by each user* whether they want to be able to be alerted in this manner or not, *and that option needs to default to off*. It probably also needs to be *a per-site setting* whether to allow use of such a feature at all.
  • It also needs to tackle the issue of multiple users having the same display name. How to differentiate between a dozen users who all have the display name "John Doe"?
  • Personally, I would likely, and certainly before long, treat such notifications as spam.
  • **Let's please not!**
  • I know different people have different views on this, but if the focus is on the **question** and on getting quality answers, then why would it matter who answers, to the extent that you actually need to notify a particular user about your question?
  • If someone is interested in a particular subject area, that person is likely to keep an eye out for questions about that anyway. Therefore, it seems likely that they would see the question whether or not there is some kind of explicit notification mechanism implemented.
  • If someone says in a comment "you really should break that question into its own post so it can get the attention it deserves", then a follow-up comment with a link might be reasonable; but that's already possible, and doesn't require naming the user in question in the question. Heck, the user might not even *want* their name publicly and perpetually associated with the question.
  • This kind of feature might work reasonably within a closed team, where you might otherwise e-mail or IM a particular person with your question. However, I don't think it's particularly relevant to the use case of *public* Q&A.
  • At an absolute minimum, **if this gets implemented**, it needs to be optional and *selectable by each user* whether they want to be able to be alerted in this manner or not, *and that option needs to default to off*. It probably also needs to be *a per-site setting* whether to allow use of such a feature at all.
  • It also needs to tackle the issue of multiple users having the same display name. How to differentiate between a dozen users who all have the display name "John Doe"?
  • Personally, I would likely, and certainly before long, treat such notifications as spam.
#2: Post edited by user avatar Canina‭ · 2020-07-06T12:45:37Z (almost 4 years ago)
  • **Let's please not!**
  • I know different people have different views on this, but if the focus is on the **question** and on getting quality answers, then why would it matter who answers, to the extent that you actually need to notify a particular user about your question?
  • If someone is interested in a particular subject area, that person is likely to keep an eye out for questions about that anyway. Therefore, it seems likely that they would see the question whether or not there is some kind of explicit notification mechanism implemented.
  • If someone says in a comment "you really should break that question into its own post so it can get the attention it deserves", then a follow-up comment with a link might be reasonable; but that's already possible, and doesn't require naming the user in question in the question.
  • This kind of feature might work reasonably within a closed team, where you might otherwise e-mail or IM a particular person with your question. However, I don't think it's particularly relevant to the use case of *public* Q&A.
  • At an absolute minimum, **if this gets implemented**, it needs to be optional and *selectable by each user* whether they want to be able to be alerted in this manner or not, *and that option needs to default to off*. It probably also needs to be *a per-site setting* whether to allow use of such a feature at all.
  • It also needs to tackle the issue of multiple users having the same display name. How to differentiate between a dozen users who all have the display name "John Doe"?
  • Personally, I would likely, and certainly before long, treat such notifications as spam.
  • **Let's please not!**
  • I know different people have different views on this, but if the focus is on the **question** and on getting quality answers, then why would it matter who answers, to the extent that you actually need to notify a particular user about your question?
  • If someone is interested in a particular subject area, that person is likely to keep an eye out for questions about that anyway. Therefore, it seems likely that they would see the question whether or not there is some kind of explicit notification mechanism implemented.
  • If someone says in a comment "you really should break that question into its own post so it can get the attention it deserves", then a follow-up comment with a link might be reasonable; but that's already possible, and doesn't require naming the user in question in the question. Heck, the user might not even *want* their name perpetually associated with the question.
  • This kind of feature might work reasonably within a closed team, where you might otherwise e-mail or IM a particular person with your question. However, I don't think it's particularly relevant to the use case of *public* Q&A.
  • At an absolute minimum, **if this gets implemented**, it needs to be optional and *selectable by each user* whether they want to be able to be alerted in this manner or not, *and that option needs to default to off*. It probably also needs to be *a per-site setting* whether to allow use of such a feature at all.
  • It also needs to tackle the issue of multiple users having the same display name. How to differentiate between a dozen users who all have the display name "John Doe"?
  • Personally, I would likely, and certainly before long, treat such notifications as spam.
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Canina‭ · 2020-07-06T12:44:43Z (almost 4 years ago)
**Let's please not!**

I know different people have different views on this, but if the focus is on the **question** and on getting quality answers, then why would it matter who answers, to the extent that you actually need to notify a particular user about your question?

If someone is interested in a particular subject area, that person is likely to keep an eye out for questions about that anyway. Therefore, it seems likely that they would see the question whether or not there is some kind of explicit notification mechanism implemented.

If someone says in a comment "you really should break that question into its own post so it can get the attention it deserves", then a follow-up comment with a link might be reasonable; but that's already possible, and doesn't require naming the user in question in the question.

This kind of feature might work reasonably within a closed team, where you might otherwise e-mail or IM a particular person with your question. However, I don't think it's particularly relevant to the use case of *public* Q&A.

At an absolute minimum, **if this gets implemented**, it needs to be optional and *selectable by each user* whether they want to be able to be alerted in this manner or not, *and that option needs to default to off*. It probably also needs to be *a per-site setting* whether to allow use of such a feature at all.

It also needs to tackle the issue of multiple users having the same display name. How to differentiate between a dozen users who all have the display name "John Doe"?

Personally, I would likely, and certainly before long, treat such notifications as spam.