The discussion centers on improving the username auto-complete feature by excluding or visually differentiating “Suspended” and “Blocked” users to prevent accidental mentions. DeanMarkTaylor initiated the suggestion, noting that historically banned users often appear in long lists, leading to unintended mentions. zogstrip proposed visually distinguishing them rather than hiding them entirely. codinghorror recalled that this was previously implemented and questioned whether blocking users from being mentioned is necessary, suggesting staff should remain immune. erlend_sh agreed with visual differentiation—like a red background or label—and emphasized that there are valid reasons to mention blocked users, such as discussing the context of their suspension. DeanMarkTaylor countered that non-staff users rarely need to mention suspended or blocked users, and even for admins, the need diminishes over time. tgxworld volunteered to investigate, citing recent work on autocomplete. codinghorror supported limiting autocomplete visibility to staff, with suspended/blocked users visually greyed out. Finally, Tomas_Hnyk noted that the feature may already be implemented, as suspended users no longer appear in autocomplete. The consensus leans toward visual differentiation over complete exclusion, with exceptions for staff.
It would be nice to see “Suspended” and “Blocked” user excluded from the username auto-complete.
From a long list of historically banned / suspended users…
… sometimes another user mentions the banned or suspended users accidentally whilst meaning to mention an active user.
Or at the very least they should be differentiated from “normal” users.
We used to do this, I thought. I am not sure blocked users should be unmentionable though, but suspended users. And staff would need to be immune. Are you sure that giant list of caveats is worth the hassle?
It doesn’t need to be a long list of caveats if they’re just differentiated from the rest like @zogstrip suggests. Maybe a red-ish background and an icon or just the words “suspended/blocked” on a newline.
There are many valid reasons for mentioning a user after they’ve been blocked, like you’re talking about the events that led to the blocking, so we shouldn’t be completely hiding it anyhow.
My experience is that there is no-need for non-staff to mention suspended or blocked users.
Even for admin staff the need diminishes to near zero for long term suspended or blocked users.
I’ll have a look since I’ve been working on autocomplete stuff recently.
Probably fine if it can be limited to staff and admins can autocomplete blocked / suspended users. Visually they should be greyed out or similar..
Seems to me like this has been completed, I cannot find a suspended user in autocomplete.
