Public Message from other profiles goes back to mine.

[DennisSmolek]

When viewing someones profile and I want to send them a public message it takes me to my profile with @thatuser in my box. I Understand that I am writing from my own stream, but navigating away from their page is odd behavior.

Facebook does this with "write on their wall." G+ doesnt even let you do this...

[InterMike]

Would be better if there were a text box similar to that on your Acitivy Stream on your profile, but on the members profile who you were commenting. Makes more sense.

[DJPaul]

When viewing someone else's profile, where would this text box go? Literally same place as one on your profile page (i.e. activity tab, at the top)?

[InterMike]

Yes, the same place as on your own profile when you're logged in, at the top of the Activity tag, to be consistent with the text box that everyone already sees on their own profile page. Would this also mean that there would be no need for the "Public Message" button as well, as the the button would just link to /?r=[username] on the same page and focus inside of the box that's on the same page? Would seem a little redundant now, and cause confusion ("Wait, there are two ways to public message someone!?")

[boonebgorges]

Just because we don't do it like FB doesn't mean that we're doing it wrong. We've opted for a model more like Twitter's than like Facebook's.

We are somewhat inconsistent internally, though - *group* activity updates happen on the group page. Not sure how to rectify this; maybe an @mention parallel for groups?

It's possible (and actually pretty easy) to do what Dennis is describing at the theme or plugin level. I'd like to see a plugin that implements it really well. Then we could consider including it as an toggleable option in BP core.

[InterMike]

I don't really view it as a "Facebook-thing", though. I just view it as being more convenient, and resulting in one less unnecessary redirect and page load, just to comment on someone's profile that you're already on. Commenting on Facebook is pretty easy and straight forward - just find what you want to comment on, and comment under it - no redirecting to another page just to comment on it.

I think the groups are fine. It makes sense for all actions to take place on that page you want to perform those actions on. It would be just as silly to be redirected all over the site just to post a comment on a bbPress forum topic, when you're already on the forum topic itself. An @mention for groups wouldn't be a good idea, I don't think - it'd plague the site full of misspelled @mentions for groups, and make you look up what the @mention was for every group, and it would take more focus off of visiting the group, where all group activities and actions should taken place.

[InterMike]

A toggle between "Public Message" and the text box, would be a great idea. That way, anyone could chose to have it "like Twitter" or "like Facebook."

[DennisSmolek]

Actually, Twitter doesnt redirect either. When you click on the person icon it says "mention thePerson" and a pop up appears allowing you to write from their page.

My guess would that is shows up above the tabs but below the avatar.. Like when you click on a comment box it appears below it.

The only one I have problems with is G+ as I have to copy their username go back to my profile, then past + with that name. But I expect it to get easier.

[r-a-y]

Replying to InterMike:

An @mention for groups wouldn't be a good idea, I don't think - it'd plague the site full of misspelled @mentions for groups, and make you look up what the @mention was for every group, and it would take more focus off of visiting the group, where all group activities and actions should taken place.

FWIW, Identi.ca is experimenting with @mentions for groups.

Replying to DennisSmolek:

Actually, Twitter doesnt redirect either.

Old Twitter does redirect back to the homepage to @mention someone; I guess the Twitter UI team improved on this by offering the lightbox to @mention someone now.

---

My two cents is when you @mention someone, you shouldn't be redirected to your profile, but rather the activity directory (similar to old Twitter). This is something I've done in the past and is doable with the filters offered by BP.

Either way, this is definitely a future release enhancement and any capable developer can probably implement these features in their theme or plugin.

[johnjamesjacoby]

Agreed this is a poor UX, but no time to rethink this in 1.5. We have a semi working implementation of this on BuddyPress.org. Might be worth porting back to core eventually.

[r-a-y]

What does everyone think about this?

My two cents is when you @mention someone, you shouldn't be redirected to your profile, but rather the activity directory (similar to old Twitter).

If everyone likes this, we can look at adding this for 1.8.

[boonebgorges]

Yeah, I like that better.

[r-a-y]

In 6977:

When public messaging a user, redirect to the activity directory instead of
your profile.

Fixes #3384.