Mentions
Mentions are the posts that name you or quote you. Nobody has mentioned you yet, so the list is empty; the steps below are what you do on the first day someone addresses you.
Mentions
The list is empty for now.
Beginner
When someone says your name
A mention is a post that names a member with an at-sign and a handle, written @name. On GitHub, typing @ plus a username sends that person a notice and pulls the conversation into their inbox. Polaris will do the same. The list fills when someone addresses you.
You also hear about an answer when you asked the question, even if the reply never types your name. Opening a thread subscribes you to it. GitHub does that by default when you open an issue or leave a comment. In Discourse, the Normal level tells you when someone replies to you or writes your @username. A followed thread is the whole conversation. A mention is one person, or one group, called by name in a single post.
Read the reason on the row before you click. A row marked mention means someone addressed you. A row marked subscribed, or reply, means the thread moved and you are on the list because you started the thread or chose to follow it. Mark the row read when you have seen it. That will clear the count in the top menu. A screen reader should hear that count change without the cursor jumping. W3C calls this a status message: assistive software can present it, and focus stays where you are.
When you write a first question, name the tool, paste the error text, and say what you already tried. Save @ for the person whose attention you need. Their answer lands in this list.
Ask a first question without pinging the whole room
I am new to a forum about practical AI. Help me draft a short question I can post. Include the tool I am using, the exact error text, what I already tried, and what I want to happen next. Then tell me whether I should add an @mention. Use @ only if one specific person must see it. If a general answer is enough, leave the @ out and explain why in one line. End with the post ready to copy, under 120 words.
Intermediate
Groups, quotes, and invitations
A group mention names a role. Polaris plans @infrastruktur for hardware questions (Swedish for infrastructure) and @prompters for people who write and test prompts. Typing @ should open a list of real accounts and groups. GitHub narrows that list as you type, and you confirm a name with Tab or Enter. Text that matches nobody stays ordinary text, so a typo never looks like a ping.
Discourse asks you to confirm before a group mention is sent. The warning states how many people will be notified, and a setting can block the ping past a cap. That cap defaults to 100. Polaris will show the same count. One invitation to a build thread is enough. Writing the group name again in a later reply wakes those people again.
The quote control copies the lines you select and marks them with >, the marker for a quoted block. On GitHub you can select text and press R, or use Quote reply. Quote an error, a command, or a prompt when the exact words matter, then add what you tried. A quote reaches the author of those words. @name reaches the person you type. If one reply needs both, put them in the same post and keep a single notice, with the direct name as the reason.
An invitation belongs in Mentions when someone names you or your group. Following the thread after that is a separate switch. You can mark the invitation read and still follow later replies, or mark it read and leave.
Invite one group to a build thread
I am writing a forum reply about a project that needs a larger machine because training stopped when my graphics chip ran out of memory. Draft one reply that quotes the error in a block quote (lines starting with >), invites the infrastructure group once with @infrastruktur, and uses @prompters only if the prompt itself is the problem. Before the reply, add a one-line warning in the form "This mention will notify N people" and tell me to replace N with the real count the site shows. Keep the reply under 150 words. Do not invent members or claim a machine is already booked.
Expert
A separate queue for direct calls
Direct addresses and quotes need their own queue. A followed thread can notify you about every reply, so direct mentions are kept in a separate list where they don't get lost. GitHub stores a reason on each notification, such as mention, subscribed, or review requested, and reason:review-requested shows only review asks. Polaris will keep direct @ calls and quotations in one queue and ordinary thread updates in another. Marking a row read clears that row and leaves the follow setting as it was.
A review request is its own reason. Name the file, put @name on the lines you want read, and state the decision you need: correctness, a safer prompt, or a memory limit. A team can mute casual mentions of its name and still receive a review its members agreed to give.
If Polaris buys a DGX Station, a booked run would be another direct reason. On DGX Station, Multi-Instance GPU can partition the machine into as many as seven instances. Each instance has its own memory, cache, and compute cores, so one job stays isolated from the next. NVIDIA lists up to 748 GB of coherent memory for DGX Station. Such a booking would arrive as a mention with the start time and the memory slice.
Polaris will notify only handles that match a real account or an allowed group, and will skip names written inside code. Before a group mention is sent, you will see how many people it will notify. Polaris will store one row per post and recipient, with the reason, the post, and the time it was marked read. The menu count will be announced with aria-live="polite" so the new number is spoken when the reader pauses.
Specify one mention record
Design a small notification record for a forum. Fields: recipient, post id, reason (mention, quote, reply, group, queue), created time, read time. Rules: one row per recipient per post; a direct @ and a quote in the same post collapse to one row and the reason is mention; names inside code ticks create no row; a group mention must include how many people will be notified and must refuse the send above a stated cap; a queue reason must include start time and memory slice, and it stays in the direct queue even if the recipient does not follow the thread. Output a field list, three example rows using the sample names Ada, Sam, and the group infrastruktur (label them as samples, not real members), and the sentence a screen reader should hear when the unread count changes, using a polite live region so focus does not move.
How a row is labeled
| Reason | You receive it when | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Mention | Someone wrote your @handle in a post |
Open that post and answer the point they named |
| Quote | Someone quoted your words | Check that the quote still matches what you meant |
| Reply | A thread you started or joined has a new answer | Read the answer; you were already part of the thread |
| Group | @infrastruktur or @prompters was named, and you are in that group |
Take it if the question is yours; otherwise leave it |
| Queue | If Polaris buys the station: a run was booked in your name | Note the start time and which memory slice is reserved |
Marking a row read clears it from the unread count. Following a thread is a separate switch, changed on the thread itself.
Before you type @
- Use
@only when a named person or group must see the post. - Pick the name from the list that appears as you type.
- Quote the error or the prompt with
>when the exact line matters. - For a group, read the count of people who will be notified, and send once.
- Put example handles inside code ticks when you are showing a sample, so the sample does not call a real account.
- For a review, name the file and the decision you need.
While the list is empty
The list lives at /en/forum/mentions/, and in Swedish at /forum/omnamnanden/. An empty list means no post has addressed you. Each future row will show who wrote it, which thread it belongs to, the reason, and a control to mark it read.
A shared community DGX Station would deliver a booked run, with its start time and memory slice, as a mention, so if your work stopped because the graphics card ran out of memory, the mention would tell you when your new run starts. About the shared station
Sources
- About notificationsHow an @mention subscribes you, and how the inbox labels a row mention, subscribed, or review requested. Also how marking items read differs from leaving a thread.
- Basic writing and formatting syntaxTyping @ plus a username or team name, the autocomplete list, quote markup with >, and Quote reply.
- Configuring team notificationsTeam-name mentions can be switched off while review requests for that team still arrive.
- Configuring default notification settings for usersDiscourse levels: Watching every reply, Normal and Tracking for replies and @username, and Muted for silence.
- Allow groups to be mentioned and sent messagesWho may mention a group, the confirm-the-count warning, and the default cap of 100 people per group mention.
- Understanding Success Criterion 4.1.3: Status MessagesW3C rule that a status change, such as a new unread count, must reach assistive software without moving focus.
- ARIA: aria-live attributepolite announces the new count when the reader pauses; assertive interrupts and should be reserved for urgent warnings.
- NVIDIA DGX Station748 GB of coherent memory, and Multi-Instance GPU partitioning into as many as seven isolated instances, each with its own memory, cache, and compute cores.