wpDiscuz User and Comment Mentioning Addon

A mention only arrives if the name is the one WordPress stored

Typing an at sign and a name in a comment seems enough to alert that person. But what someone sees as their name on the site is not necessarily the tag they can be mentioned with.

In mentions, a person's identity is not the displayed name but a friendly name WordPress derives from the user, and your readers finding each other depends on that. That is why the search that appears when you type the at sign matters as much as the mention itself.

wpDiscuz User and Comment Mentioning is a wpDiscuz add-on that lets you mention users with @ and comments with #. Typing the at sign opens a user search with suggestions, and the person who receives the mention is notified by email.

Mentioning people and mentioning comments

• User mentions with @user: typing @ opens a search and the mentioned user receives an email.
• Comment mentions with #id: the author of the mentioned comment receives an email.
• ID button: every comment shows a button in a corner that reveals its number, to copy it into another comment; it is then tracked as a mention.
• Links with avatar and a hover window: over @user it shows avatar, name and other details, and a click goes to their page; over #id it shows the author and the comment text, and a click jumps to that comment.

The content of the comment mention and user mention emails is edited from the dashboard, and the alerts can be turned on or off. The codes [blogTitle] and [postTitle] are accepted in the subject.

A long thread where someone replies to a distant comment

A use worth testing on your site: in a long thread, a reader wants to reply to something said many comments back and copies that comment's number into theirs. Its author gets the alert, and readers can hover over the number to see the quoted text.

1. Find the comment you want to reply to.
2. Click the button in its corner to see the number.
3. Type # and the number in your comment and publish it.
4. Check that the original author receives the email and that the link jumps to the comment.

Settings and limits of mentions

Two settings change the behavior. "Enable mentioning by comment ID" turns off the # symbol if you leave it unchecked, leaving only user mentions. "Enable guest mentioning" turns guest mentions on or off.

• Among its functions there are no group mentions like @team that alert several people.
• Among its functions there is no setting to make the tag use the visible name instead of the friendly name.
• Among its functions there are no native controls over who can mention whom; there are developer hooks to filter the search results.
• Among its functions there is no inline view of the quoted comment in place of the #number link.

Requirements and getting started

It needs wpDiscuz installed and the rich comment editor turned on, because mentions are typed in that editor.

1. Turn on the rich comment editor in wpDiscuz.
2. Upload the add-on and activate it.
3. Open wpDiscuz, Settings, the Addons tab, the User and Comment Mentioning subtab.
4. Decide whether you want mention by comment ID and guest mentioning.
5. Edit the email text and publish a test comment with one mention of each type.

Alternatives for mentions in comments

The comments this add-on acts on are managed by wpDiscuz. If your site runs on wProject, the catalog includes wProject Comment Mention Pro.

Questions about mentions and alerts

Can I turn off guest mentions?

Yes. The guest mentioning setting can be turned on or off whenever you want.

Can I keep only user mentions?

Yes. Unchecking mention by comment ID removes the # symbol and leaves the at-sign mentions.

Does the mentioned person get an alert?

Yes. Both the mentioned user and the author of a mentioned comment receive an email, whose text you can edit.