Anyone else having problems in usernames not converting to hyperlinks?

Paul W

It has taken me several attempts this morning to get a username to appear as (for example) @Paul W. (I'm not getting a drop-down after I begin typing.) I have noticed other posts when the name appears as (say) @Paul W instead and wonder if this is a bug. Until the last couple of days I have only had a similar issue when I have made an error in spelling a name, then have had a job correcting it to the (blue) version that provides a link.

(BTW, I have written my username as @Paul W, instead of @Paul W, by pasting from Word, as I am unable to replicate at the moment!)

Wayland K Adams

@Paul W - Paul, this seems to be working fine for me. Unless I am confusing something in your post, what shows up at the top of your posts is not your username, it is your contact ID from your Family Search account. Your contact ID, which is always public, also shows up when you make changes to Family Search. Your username is never public and will not show up anywhere. You can confirm it, but I think your contact ID is Paul W As I said, everything seems to be working fine for me.

Paul W

@Wayland K Adams

Thank you for your response and sorry for using the wrong terminology!

So, yes, I am referring to my contact ID @Paul W. In fact, it just took three attempts to get that appear in a drop-down list (as I began typing) and I thought I was going to have to just type it manually (i.e., without it "turning blue"). I accept it's just an intermittent issue, so was just wanting to know if I am the only one having the problem.

Thanks for confirming it's not an issue for you!

Adrian Bruce1

Something is awry - I can type at-sign immediately followed by "Paul" (no spaces) and I see Paul's user name (or whatever) in a dropdown list - I can then select it and I get @Paul W (whatever that ends up as - we'll see)

However, the other day, the system refused point blank to give me the option of a name starting @Á when I typed @A - it has always done so in the past, when said user had posted earlier in the thread. Now I have to paste the A-acute to get the perfectly standard Irish name as an option.

Julia Szent-Györgyi

Yes, the overhelpful posting software has decided to get lazy about this one thing: at-mentions have become literalists. I could tag Áine if I wanted to because my fingers know the alt-number combo for capital Á. (My brain has to pay attention to my fingers: it's 0193.) Typing "@Aine" no longer works to bring up her username. (I can also get the accented letters by switching keyboard layouts to Hungarian, but I never remember where the "at" sign is on that.) (I'm sure @Gordon Collett can tell us the fruity equivalents for generating Á.)

Ah! But at-mentioning is apparently not case-sensitive. Typing shift-2 followed by alt-0225 would also work to "summon" Áine. Thank goodness for small mercies.

Oh: the "at" sign must be at the beginning of the line or follow a space. If you click to add an at-mention somewhere and get the cursor location off by one, or if you try to put it in quotation marks, it will not work.

Áine Ní Donnghaile

@Paul W I had noticed that several comments where someone thought they had tagged a correspondent did not. I find I have to fiddle a bit to get it to tag sometimes. Had to try twice just now to tag you, Paul.

Julia, I could change my username, I suppose. Adrian also mentioned having issues with the Irish.

Adrian Bruce1

" … Julia, I could change my username …" Certainly not @Áine Ní Donnghaile! Your name gives us a default topic to moan about!

Slightly more seriously - @Julia Szent-Györgyi has highlighted something I hadn't twigged. Your name does have to be at the beginning of the line - I tried it in the middle of a line and it wouldn't pick up, inserted a new line and even then it didn't pick up until the 2nd or 3rd go of pasting in a perfectly good A-acute.

I am assuming that this load of ####, sorry, this latest enhancement, is the result of a change in the underlying software and is outside FamilySearch's control. Because if it is in FS's written customisation, then I struggle to understand why these changes have been made. I mean, why change the shape and colour of the frame I'm typing in now? The cost-benefit is?

MandyShaw1

Fixing (or reconfiguring, whichever is relevant) the 'disappearing discussions/disappearing comments' issue, or the peculiarities of hyperlink handling, would be a far better use of time, surely?

Áine Ní Donnghaile

@Adrian Bruce1 just tested, and I don't seem to be able to tag myself at all, first of line or elsewhere.

Paul W

Half a dozen attempts ended with my trying to copy your name from your profile and I got this "automatically" appear:

Just typed @ - didn't need to even "copy" your name from anywhere after that - it just popped up as an alternative, whereas all I had been receiving was Aine Waldron, when just typing "Aine". (I tried the Alt 0193 option, but couldn't get that to work.)

Julia Szent-Györgyi

(@Paul W, alt-number combos only work with the numeric keypad, not with the numbers across the top.)

I cannot get it to replicate your screenshot on my end. "@Á" just gets Áine.

"@A" gets five apparently-random users starting with A. (The five names are in alphanumeric order, but there are a lot more than two usernames beginning with "Ab" in this Community.)

Typing as far as "@Aine" gets four users, none of them Áine.

@ by itself generates the three users who apparently have the "at" sign as the first character of their usernames.

I can find no rhyme or reason in which five users show up in the drop-down. "@Juli" has me second on the list.

Typing one character further, however, removes me from the drop-down.

I wonder if the problem is that the old algorithm still occasionally "holds sway", but only in some weird set of circumstances?

Paul W

Thanks, Julia. Will have to remember that. Worked first time using keypad.

@Áine Ní Donnghaile

Gordon Collett

So if I try my usual just press and hold the A key long enough then choose the character I want to get @Áine Ní Donnghaile , things are working just fine here:

BraydenGraves

I tried to reply to someone and the @mentions wouldn't let me select the person, even though it had the box showing the name I was typing. It was working fine a few minutes ago, except that diacritics still have to be copied and pasted in.

Edit: I can select my own name just fine, but still can't select the other name. It might be yet another issue with diacritics.

MaureenE123

This is one of the problems, which are apparently being addressed, mentioned in

https://community.familysearch.org/en/discussion/161104/community-platform-issues-being-addressed