Mention (blogging)

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

Not to be confused with Hashtag or Tag (metadata).

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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.

## Styles and history

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### @ (at sign)

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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)

[edit]

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

## Software

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

CKEditor, an 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

[edit]

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.

* v
* t
* e

Microblogging

Centralized|

* Facebook
* Fanfou
* Gab
* Gettr
* Hive Social
* LinkedIn
* Myspace
* Pillowfort
* Plurk
* Qzone
* Solaborate
* Truth Social
* Tumblr
* Twitter
* Viadeo
* VK
* Weibo
* XING

Decentralized|

| ActivityPub-compatible|

* Friendica
* GNU social
* Mastodon
* micro.blog
* Misskey
* Pleroma
* Threads

|

* Bluesky
* AT Protocol
* diaspora
* identi.ca
* pump.io
* Nostr
* OpenMicroBlogging
* OStatus
* Twister

Defunct|

* App.net
* Edmodo
* Google Buzz
* Google+
* Heello
* Jaiku
* Me2day
* Meme
* Migme
* Natter
* Parler
* Posterous
* Pownce
* Qaiku
* Tencent Weibo
* Tout

Features|

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

* Comparison of microblogging and similar services

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