# Using @ to reply ... grrrr!

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-to-reply-grrrr/101873>\
**Category:** Community Building\
**Created:** [November 12, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-to-reply-grrrr/101873 "2018-11-12T18:46:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 1

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**Author:** ![merefield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/merefield/32/176214_2.png) [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)\
**Post date:** [November 12, 2018, 6:46pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-to-reply-grrrr/101873/1 "2018-11-12T18:46:08Z")

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Does anyone else find this annoying?

I have users that are starting to do the following:

- using `@ username` to aim replies instead of hitting the reply button on their post
- using this technique to reply to multiple users in the same post (\>3!)

What happens is that then we start to get several threads of discussion going on within each post that invariably get off Topic and it makes it impossible to unpick this by shifting posts around and creating new topics where appropriate, rendering the ‘soft touch’ moderating tools not useful.

Then to top it all we started getting:

- Off-topic personal one to one’s in posts tacked on so someone would direct an aside to an individual user (“_Oh hi @ Jake, how’s your wife doing?_”) (A pet hate: the "Get a room! " publicly-private message)
- then that user replies back with another `@ username` reference.

Now of course I’ve followed up by highlighting how annoying this is and hopefully it will have an effect.

And yes, of course, I am partly to blame as I let this mode of behaviour emerge too much without nipping it in the bud … but I was trying to be hands off and let my users ‘enjoy’ themselves. It went too far.

If it persists I’ll start by deleting all but the first reply in each post.

Anyone else had this happen and got annoyed by it?

Am I being too harsh on my users wanting to stamp this out?

NB I’m not blaming Discourse for any of the above. The functionality is all there for a reason, it’s just not being used correctly.

Perhaps we could have a setting to limit the number of @'s allowed in a post (does it exist?)?

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