Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask you please, if you are going to use the @ to get another poster's attention

27 replies

Tatiana · 08/05/2018 22:01

To use their full MN Name not a quick and casual abbreviation.

My inbox is stuffed full of notifications that someone has mentioned me on a thread. But it's not me they are responding to. It's @TatianaLarina
While I am sure she is lovely, and named after someone from one of my favourite books, she is not me.

Thank you. Спасибо

OP posts:
birdonawire1 · 08/05/2018 22:08

It’s very irritating

MaggieMeldrum · 08/05/2018 22:09

I didn’t even know you could do that. Is it a new thing?

HardAsSnails · 08/05/2018 22:11

You can turn off notifications.

Original poster
Tatiana · 08/05/2018 22:12

I didn't know I had them turned on!

OP posts:
IIIustriousIyIllogical · 08/05/2018 22:12

You can turn off notifications.

This.

The @ thing is usually used by someone to have a dig. Since turning the notifications off I've had blissful silence!!

IIIustriousIyIllogical · 08/05/2018 22:13

I didn't know I had them turned on

They're on by default unfortunately.....

Original poster
Tatiana · 08/05/2018 22:13

How do I turn off notifications? Confused

OP posts:
DramaAlpaca · 08/05/2018 22:17

I got one the other day addressed to a username I last used in 2013 because the person sending the message used an abbreviated name. I was a bit Confused

DadDadDad · 08/05/2018 22:54

As you need to type the full name correctly in order to use @, maybe MN need to introduce a check that the username has posted on the same thread, to avoid spurious matches.

Sparklingbrook · 08/05/2018 22:56

I often wonder how many people have the function turned on.
I switched it off straight away and never use the @ function myself.

bananafish81 · 08/05/2018 23:06

On the app it's much easier to @ someone than type their name out and bold it, because you just type @ and the first letter of the username and it'll bring the names on the thread up automatically

Loads easier than typing and getting the spelling wrong

So if you're both on the thread then it'll bring up both Tatianas

But if there's only one of you on the thread then it can only bring up the one who's posting

ErrolTheDragon · 08/05/2018 23:15

As you need to type the full name correctly in order to use @, maybe MN need to introduce a check that the username has posted on the same thread, to avoid spurious matches.

But doesn't the @ sometimes get used to try to summon a subject expert to a thread?

bananafish81 · 08/05/2018 23:20

Yes absolutely it can - and you'll have to get the name right for that. However some people seem to get het up about it being used full stop - not everyone uses the app, so might not be aware of this feature (which makes it a lot easier to reply to a poster within the same thread than typing out their username and manually bolding it)

Glaciferous · 08/05/2018 23:24

I heartily support your plea. Tatiana. I was getting a ton of notifications about someone with a similar name to an old one of mine. They were actually quite upsetting (miscarriage-related).

DadDadDad · 08/05/2018 23:38

But doesn't the @ sometimes get used to try to summon a subject expert to a thread?

OK, fair point, but I bet a lot of people see @ being used and just assume it's a convention to refer to another user, without realising the notification potential. Maybe users need a warning to inform them?

The one occasion someone wanted to summon me as a subject expert (probability theory Smile), they sent me a PM.

ErrolTheDragon · 08/05/2018 23:43

I agree PMs are better...but afaik can only be done from the browser version not the app.

FireandBrimstone · 08/05/2018 23:49

The @ thing is usually used by someone to have a dig.

Blushoh dear I did not know this... and literally just @tagged someone. The reason I did it was it was a thread from a while ago and I didn't think the OP would know unless I tagged them. Confused

dayinlifeof · 08/05/2018 23:53

I didn't know that it was used to have a dig, I've seen it used when just doing a general reply to somebody and so have used it the same way.

SenecaFalls · 09/05/2018 00:01

The @ thing is usually used by someone to have a dig.

This hasn't been my experience. It's only happened a few times but each time it was very benign.

DadDadDad · 09/05/2018 00:07

I've never assumed it meant having a dig, although @FireandBrimstone, the user called tagged will be along soon to see what you've dragged them into. Grin

IIIustriousIyIllogical · 09/05/2018 08:03

It's not cast in stone, but I do see it used a lot when people just want to alert someone to a "smart" reply to a point they've made.....

Sunshinedaze · 09/05/2018 08:33

Here you go : www.mumsnet.com/Talk?call=Preferences

TeFiti · 09/05/2018 09:21

I’ve also been getting email notifications because people are tagging an abbreviated username and therefore inadvertently tagging me instead of @TeFiti2 (the need for a 2 should have given a clue, surely).

Wasn’t aware the tagging notifications could be turned off, cheers.

ErrolTheDragon · 09/05/2018 09:32

Fire - that's a sensible use. If someone is active on a thread, then using the @ is unnecessary and may be annoying, but if they've not posted for a while then it's a good way to alert them of something relevant (easier for both parties than a PM, IMO). I would imagine that's the sort of use case which was envisaged when this feature was added.

Kismett · 09/05/2018 09:39

I didn’t know it actually notified people! I thought it was just a way to hold someone’s name so they could scan the thread and see they were being replied to. Sorry! Blush