# The system should warn you if you @mention someone who wouldn't be able to see it
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [11월 2, 2014, 3:18오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759 "2014-11-02T15:18:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@joshfrank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/joshfrank)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2014, 3:18오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/1 "2014-11-02T15:18:22Z")
On my site, we had a moderator who had inadvertently not been granted moderation rights. So people were @mention’ing him on posts in the `Staff` category, but he couldn’t see those posts. I’m not sure if he was notified by email or what he did see when viewing such a post, but since he didn’t have access to the whole category, it clearly wouldn’t work.
I have some other private categories, and this seems like the kind of thing that could easily get messed up. If you start to @mention someone, all users seem to appear in the list, even ones who don’t have access. I think it would be much safer to show the popup user list and include all users, but visually indicate in the list when a user doesn’t have access, so you’re forced to rethink what you’re doing (either grant access, or post somewhere else, or PM them).
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### Author:  [@hunterboerner](https://meta.discourse.org/u/hunterboerner)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2014, 4:07오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/2 "2014-11-02T16:07:55Z")
FWIW this is how slack handles that issue.
Just a little inspiration.
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### Author:  [@lake54](https://meta.discourse.org/u/lake54)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2014, 5:22오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/3 "2014-11-02T17:22:26Z")
And for more inspiration, here’s now Facebook does it with closed groups:
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2014, 8:24오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/5 "2014-11-02T20:24:47Z")
Thanks for the examples, very helpful. The Slack approach is probably best, but for now if we could (eventually) show the users who do not have access greyed out, that’d be a good start.
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### Author:  [@joshfrank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/joshfrank)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2014, 8:56오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/6 "2014-11-02T20:56:30Z")
I couldn’t tell from the screenshot, but does Slack wait until after you’ve posted to tell you about the problem? I like their UI, but better would be to know before you post, because you might not want or be able to add the user to the group, in which case the post might not make any sense and you’d PM instead. It’d be annoying to find that out only after you write and post the whole thing.
Can the user be greyed out with some explanatory text? Without the explanation, I suspect people will not figure out why they can’t click the user, and just think something’s broken.
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### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2014, 8:57오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/7 "2014-11-02T20:57:50Z")
I just still want to be able to mention users who don’t have access. So far it is the quickest way to link to their profile without a lot of effort/work. 😄
So whatever you do, don’t remove the ability all together.
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### Author:  [@TechnoBear](https://meta.discourse.org/u/TechnoBear)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2014, 9:02오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/8 "2014-11-02T21:02:13Z")
> [@cpradio](#):
>
> So far it is the quickest way to link to their profile without a lot of effort/work.
Does that work without alerting them? I hadn’t realised that.
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### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2014, 9:06오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/9 "2014-11-02T21:06:02Z")
Confirmed, they do not get any notification 😄 Which is great, as it permits us to quickly link to them while having discussions.
I don’t mind being notified that they can’t see the mention, but I want to be able to mention them.
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2014, 9:09오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/10 "2014-11-02T21:09:19Z")
I think a simple strike-through could work and shouldn’t obscure the name too much in most cases.
@TechnoBear
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2014, 9:11오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/11 "2014-11-02T21:11:07Z")
Why in the world would we alert a user who has no access to a private topic when you @name mention that user in said private topic?
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### Author:  [@cpradio](https://meta.discourse.org/u/cpradio)
#### Post date: [11월 2, 2014, 9:33오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/14 "2014-11-02T21:33:48Z")
Again, I don’t think she expected it too, but wasn’t sure what the end result would be and thus didn’t try it. I’m also 100% certain she didn’t know about the bug in 2013 either. Purely didn’t want to take any risk, so didn’t ever attempt it.
I do look forward to better indicators though, I think that would be a welcomed improvement 😄
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### Author:  [@TechnoBear](https://meta.discourse.org/u/TechnoBear)
#### Post date: [11월 3, 2014, 11:12오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/15 "2014-11-03T11:12:10Z")
> [@cpradio](#):
>
> Again, I don’t think she expected it too, but wasn’t sure what the end result would be and thus didn’t try it. I’m also 100% certain she didn’t know about the bug in 2013 either. Purely didn’t want to take any risk, so didn’t ever attempt it.
All of which is true.
Frankly, it had never occurred to me to do it until you mentioned it. I didn’t want an @mention showing up in the notifications menu, with an unclearable link to a 404 page. (As happens for mentions, likes, replies if the post is moved from a public to private area, or deleted.) And it was too late at night for clear thinking.
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### Author:  [@joshfrank](https://meta.discourse.org/u/joshfrank)
#### Post date: [11월 3, 2014, 2:13오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/16 "2014-11-03T14:13:39Z")
I think you should be **able** to mention the person, but be warned that the person herself can’t see the post, and that the person will not be notified about the mention. If you’re mentioning her for someone else’s benefit who can see the post, then sure.
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### Author:  [@FichteFoll](https://meta.discourse.org/u/FichteFoll)
#### Post date: [11월 5, 2014, 9:36오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/17 "2014-11-05T21:36:47Z")
On facebook it is also shown to users reading a post that the mentioned one or the one who submitted the comment can not read it.
(Translation: “[User] can not see this post because he is not a member of [this group].”
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### Author:  [@Skud](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Skud)
#### Post date: [11월 13, 2014, 8:57오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/18 "2014-11-13T08:57:25Z")
I don’t know why you’d want to, but there are/have been some platforms which have done this. Google+, for instance, used to have a thing where you could invite people to a private conversation by @ mentioning them (or rather + mentioning them). You could even do this without the consent of the OP, which was pretty awful :-/
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### Author:  [@tobiaseigen](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tobiaseigen)
#### Post date: [2월 10, 2015, 2:59오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/19 "2015-02-10T14:59:35Z")
I just came across this issue while setting up groups that can be mentioned and it then ‘explodes’ to mention all the people in the group. It is not indicated which are not going to be notified, both while posting for the author of the post and later by others reading it who might think the person has been notified and will be joining the discussion.
Unless this is such low priority that we have to learn to live with it - which is fine - this seems to be the best solution:
> [@Mittineague](#):
>
> I think a simple strike-through could work and shouldn’t obscure the name too much in most cases.
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### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [12월 4, 2025, 11:32오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/the-system-should-warn-you-if-you-mention-someone-who-wouldnt-be-able-to-see-it/21759/20 "2025-12-04T11:32:48Z")