A mention (also known as @replies or tagging) is a means by which a blog post references or links to a user's profile. This may be done as a matter of getting the attention of (or drawing attention to) another user of a social networking or blogging service, as a matter of replying to the other user's post, or as a matter of "tagging" a user in a post (i.e., to say that "Jay Thompson was here").

Styles and history

@ (at sign)

The rise to prominence of Twitter from its launch in 2006 gave rise to using the at sign ("@") as a description for directing a public post to a particular user, especially for the purpose of replying to another user's post (i.e., "@janedoe"). Only after the usage of @ as a visual means of directing posts to specific users gained currency among Twitter users did Twitter developers begin to integrate the @ sign as a fundamental conversational tool on the site.

Initially, @ was used by Twitter users occasionally as shorthand for other words, such as location or time. The first person to use @ as a description of directing a post at another user was Robert S. Andersen ("rsa") on 2 November 2006;[1] initially, this usage made use of a space between the @ and the name, followed by a colon and the main content.

The first to propose a general syntax for directly addressing users in posts were Ben Darlow[2] and Neil Crosby,[3] and by January 2007, more Twitter users began to take notice of the practice with various degrees of acceptance;[4] within the year, the convention trended toward combining the @ and a Twitter username (as opposed to a real name) and prepending the combination to the beginning of a post in order to indicate a reply. Ultimately, they became colloquially known as "@replies" for their primary usage as replies to other users' posts. Twitter added support for "@replies" beginning in May 2008,[5] with any combination of @ with a username being turned into a hyperlink to the profile. On March 30, 2009, Twitter updated the feature and renamed it "Mentions" (i.e., to "mention" user "@janedoe") so as to include non-reply posts directed at individual users.[6]

Beginning September 2009, Facebook integrated the at sign as a mentioning feature; typing "@" in a post automatically initiates a drop-down autocomplete list containing names of "friends", groups and pages, which, after one being selected and the post published, links to the profile, group or page.[7]

@-replies started being used on Wikipedia around 2013.[8]

YouTube started introducing @-handles in late 2022.[9]

Distributed social networks and federated networks may use two at signs, the latter to indicate the instance/server which the mentioned users resides on. Example @janedoe@mastodon.social mentions the user janedoe on the server mastodon.social.

+ (plus sign)

The plus sign ("+") was utilized on Google+ to select a user or page.

Software

TinyMCE, a online rich-text editor supports mentions via the Mentions plugin.[10]

CKEditor, a online rich-text editor supports mentions.[11]

GitLab, a DevOps platform supports mentions in merge requests, issues, discussions, etc.[12]

Mastodon supports mentions.[13] User lookup is implemented using the WebFinger protocol.

References

  1. ↑ Garrett Murray (10 Jul 2012). "The Real History of the @reply on Twitter". Maniacal Rage.
  2. ↑ Ben Darlow (November 23, 2006). "wondering if there should be a pseudo-syntax for letting a Follower on twitter know you're directing a comment at them". Twitter. Archived from the original on Apr 5, 2019.
  3. ↑ Neil Crosby (November 23, 2006). "@kapowaz: probably". Twitter. Archived from the original on Nov 22, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Origin of the @reply – Digging through twitter's history". Anarchogeek. July 9, 2012. Archived from the original on July 14, 2012.
  5. ↑ Evan Williams (May 12, 2008). "How @replies work on Twitter (and how they might)". Twitter. Archived from the original on Dec 20, 2012.
  6. ↑ Biz Stone (March 30, 2009). "Replies Are Now Mentions". Twitter. Archived from the original on Dec 20, 2012.
  7. ↑ Ben Parr (September 9, 2009). "BREAKING: Facebook Introduces @Mentions in Status Updates". Mashable. Archived from the original on Nov 10, 2023.
  8. ↑ See Template:Reply to edit history.
  9. ↑ Nield, David (Nov 12, 2022). "How to Claim Your YouTube Handle". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on May 7, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Mentions plugin | TinyMCE Documentation". TinyMCE. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  11. ↑ "Mentions| CKEditor 5 Documentation". CKEditor. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  12. ↑ "Comments and threads". GitLab. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
  13. ↑ "Posting to your profile". Mastodon documentation. Retrieved 10 November 2023.
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