Mention (blogging)

Short description: Means by which a blog or social media post references or links to a user's profile

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").

## Contents

* 1 Styles and history
* 1.1 @ (at sign)
* 1.2 \+ (plus sign)
* 2 Software
* 3 References

## 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.[citation needed]

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][self-published source] initially, this usage made use of a space between the @ and the name, followed by a colon and the main content.[citation needed]

The first to propose a general syntax for directly addressing users in posts were Ben Darlow[2] and Neil Crosby,[3][original research?] and by January 2007, more Twitter users began to take notice of the practice with various degrees of acceptance;[4][self-published source] 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][non-primary source needed] 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][non-primary source needed]

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.[citation needed]

## 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. http://log.maniacalrage.net/post/26935842947/the-real-history-of-the-reply-on-twitter.
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. https://twitter.com/kapowaz/statuses/139453.
3. ↑ Neil Crosby (November 23, 2006). "@kapowaz: probably". Twitter. https://twitter.com/NeilCrosby/statuses/139513.
4. ↑ "Origin of the @reply – Digging through twitter's history". Anarchogeek. July 9, 2012. http://anarchogeek.com/2012/07/09/origin-of-the-reply-digging-through-twitters-history/.
5. ↑ Evan Williams (May 12, 2008). "How @replies work on Twitter (and how they might)". Twitter. http://blog.twitter.com/2008/05/how-replies-work-on-twitter-and-how.html.
6. ↑ Biz Stone (March 30, 2009). "Replies Are Now Mentions". Twitter. http://blog.twitter.com/2009/03/replies-are-now-mentions.html.
7. ↑ Ben Parr (September 9, 2009). "BREAKING: Facebook Introduces @Mentions in Status Updates". Mashable. http://mashable.com/2009/09/10/facebook-mentions/.
8. ↑ See Template:Reply to edit history.
9. ↑ Nield, David (Nov 12, 2022). "How to Claim Your YouTube Handle" (in en-US). Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-claim-youtube-handle-set-up/.
10. ↑ "Mentions plugin | TinyMCE Documentation". https://www.tiny.cloud/docs/tinymce/6/mentions/.
11. ↑ "Mentions| CKEditor 5 Documentation" (in en). https://ckeditor.com/docs/ckeditor5/latest/features/mentions.html.
12. ↑ "Comments and threads". https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/discussions/#mentions.
13. ↑ "Posting to your profile" (in en-us). https://docs.joinmastodon.org/user/posting/#mentions.

* v
* t
* e

Microblogging

Websites|

* Facebook
* Twitter
* Tumblr
* LinkedIn
* Sina Weibo
* Tencent Weibo
* Diaspora
* Edmodo
* Fanfou
* Gab
* Identi.ca
* micro.blog
* migme
* Myspace
* Plurk
* Solaborate
* Qzone
* Tout
* Viadeo
* VK
* XING

Defunct|

* App.net
* Google Buzz
* Google+
* Heello
* Jaiku
* Meme
* Me2day
* Natter
* Posterous
* Pownce
* Qaiku

Platforms|

| OStatus-compatible|

* Friendica
* GNU social
* PeerTube

|

ActivityPub-compatible|

* Friendica
* Pleroma
* Mastodon
* PeerTube

* Diaspora
* OpenMicroBlogging
* pump.io
* Twister
* Webfinger

Features|

* Reblogging
* Activity stream
* Lifestreaming
* Hashtag
* Backchannel
* Mention/Replies

Other topics|

* Microblogging in China
* Microblogging novel
* Micropoetry

Comparison of microblogging services

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