This whole thing is gonna be really long I'm so sorry OTL

Tagging Users
So I'm not sure if this used to be a feature and was removed or if there's an explicit reason as to why it's not already feature, but I'd like to see the ability to tag users on the forums.

The general idea is to alert people that they're wanted/needed somewhere without having to PM them. And while yes, you can always just send someone a PM, it's much faster to be able to @name them and give them a forum notification.

Someone was outbid? Responding to a specific question regarding sales? Need someone to respond in RP? Found something relevant to a person's interests? Tag them.

While convenient, it could also very well strengthen the forum community through proper communication. It'd allow users to better create a network, providing more personal and convenient levels of communication. As it is now, everything in chatter falls pretty flat. You have to rely on people actually checking their forum notifications, reading to see if any of the posts pertain to them, and actually seeing anything that is relevant to them - or you have to send one or more messages to however many people.

In theory, tagging would work something like on xenforo or enjin forums. Typing someone's name would provide a dropdown list of users which complete your search. Quick gif made on a xenforo forum somewhere:


With LD's username system, admittedly it'd be hard to establish what to tag someone by, as their display names can constantly change. In this case, users could either be tagged via ID OR under their display name on the side could be their registered username so that users know who to tag.

Tagging Users + Direct Posts (Permalinks)
User alerts could come up as similar to a forum notification, reading something like "You have been tagged on the forums - Check to see what's new!" This leads into the second part of this suggestion - direct post numbers. The idea is to be able to permalink posts found on a thread. A number would be displayed somewhere on a user's response which identifies what post number it was after the OP, and can be directly linked to. The permalink itself would identify the response as the overall response on the forums. For example: http://www.lioden.com/topic.php?id=304429237051/#post-1225212


This would help provide structure for users as they wouldn't need to have multiple threads for the same topic/idea or say to users "more on page 7!" and rely on users to find it, as it could be linked in. Really, though, the purpose of having permalinks like this is so that when a user is tagged, the forum notification that they click would link them directly to the post in which they were tagged.

And because I know people will be concerned about things:

• "But someone could spam like 50 people in a tag just for attention/views!" - Create a limit on how many users can be tagged per post.
• "I don't want to be tagged in anything." - Create an option to not receive notifications when tagged.
• "People would use it to spam mods." - See above OR create a dialog box which pops up when a staff member is tagged, reading something like "Remember, if you need help with something, submit it to the modbox"
• "What if people misuse it?" - I mean someone is always going to abuse some feature in some way but I'm glad you ask because I present to you: Active Reporting!

Reporting Posts
Pretty straightforward. Instead of having to go through the modbox to report posts, users can have the ability to report posts on the specific post. A small report button can be clicked which will open a prompt asking about the rule broken. Reports can be viewed by staff for convenience of finding everything and fast response.



Users who abuse the system will face consequences of breaking rules. Simple as that.

OKAY so look I know that this is a lot of stuff to implement as it's custom forum work but it generally shouldn't be a horribly difficult project to do. It's all meant to help communication and effectiveness, because the level of interaction normally seen on forums just isn't here, and it really could be.