Sometimes it gets difficult to keep track of who has quoted you on XDA, and there's no way to know if someone "mentions" you in the course of discussion. Today we're rolling out a feature that operates much like @mentions work on Twitter and other social networks. By default, anytime someone puts the "@" symbol next to your username, you'll get an email notification (which you can turn off) and a vBulletin notification (which you can also turn off). Here's how it works.

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Quoting works just as it does now. Using the quote or multi-quote button in a post will automatically send the quoted person an email and a notification (in the upper right corner where notifications usually take place).

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Mentions work the same they do on Twitter. To mention someone, just type "@[User]..." and as you begin typing, you'll see a pop up that taps the XDA user database so that you don't have to type the entire name. When you find the right name, just click on it from the drop down.

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Then, when you log in, you can see all of your mention and quote notifications in the drop down at the top right.

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There are a handful of settings you can change if you go into Mention System settings in the User CP. First, you can specify to *only* alert you of mentions or quotes from people on your friends list. This will be helpful for popular developers that might not want to be ambushed with emails and notifications. To add someone to your friends list, click on their name and choose "Add as contact" then check off "send friend request" in the next screen.

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Then, you can specify if you get email notifications at all. Finally, you can toggle on/off the drop down notification and choose whether it appears.

We plan on adding new features in the future. For now, if you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, hit up the Mention System Feedback thread. Enjoy!

Note: to use the mention system, you must have more than 10 posts on XDA.

Note 2: as with any new feature on XDA, even the most careful testing doesn't simulate the massive amount of use that this feature will experience once live. As such, the mention system might be unavailable at times as we ensure it is performing just right.