[openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website] Implement a reliable system to @-mention users in comments (Issue #6635)

[Minh Nguyễn]

1ec5 left a comment (openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website#6635)

An autocomplete dropdown would be very handy in some cases. Otherwise, some users have names that are difficult to @-mention.

The proposed syntax might be fine in a field that we parse as Markdown, but changeset comments (including the `comment=*` tag on the changeset) are plain text, even if we prettify it for display. So we shouldn’t introduce any formal markup semantics that are functionally required rather than decorative. In other words, it’s fine to boldface or link text based on the raw text, but our starting assumption should be that the user is writing the text to be consumed fairly literally without needing external dependencies just to be readable.

As far as I know, we don’t have an API method for listing users or searching for users by display name. The user would need to type in a full user name before the menu could pop up, not just a prefix. This may surprise users who are accustomed to other sites (like GitHub or Discourse) that suggest user names based on a prefix.

Could we simplify the dropdown’s design? It could be limited to users who are already in the current conversation (to avoid accidentally pulling in people with similar user names). And it could automatically insert a URL in the form osm.wiki/user/…. With these changes, it could be implemented purely in JavaScript without the need for a new API method. The downside is that the resulting comment would be a bit more verbose, but we’re kind of stuck with that unless we convert the text field to a WYSIWYG rich text field.

Another issue is that, with increased UI around user names in text, users may come to expect their references to user names to work like pings. That is, they may expect the @ to send the user a notification, even if they aren’t subscribed to the discussion: #6636.

-- 
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub:
https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/6635#issuecomment-3677089822
You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.

Message ID: <openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/6635/3677089822 at github.com>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/rails-dev/attachments/20251219/5f122f65/attachment.htm>