As I can see a lot of people started to use @ sign to refer to some other user, for example: @Lexor.
The thing is the referred user does not get any notification about this in his/her panel.

Would it be very hard to change this situation? It could be very helpful as current method (by using quote) is much slower when referring to multiple users in one post.

Hmm... when I created this topic it got "-1" replies and it was hidden - is this another forum bug?

edit: After adding this reply, the number of replies was set as "1" and topic is now visible. Weird.

I think it was Twitter who started this standard. Twitter uses the @ to identify users, but it's also a convenient way to indicate you are talking "at someone". Since then it is being adopted by more and more social media communities / forums.

The closest we have know is quoting the user (they will receive a notification). But you need them to have posted in the thread before.

Actually notification appears to be broken this morning as I've yet to get any. It's a lot older than that for identifying users. Goes back to Fidonet and earlier.

Oh and FYI, the whale's not theirs either:

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/the-story-behind-twitters-fail-whale/384313/

Sorry, one of those nitpicks of mine. I'm big on giving credit to where it belongs. Should see me with anti-Trump folks.

edit: I'd rather see a standard forum placed here than staff trying to fix this one. I think they have better things to do.

Yes. Couple of years old by now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVMib1T4T4

Well, they are working for me, so it's maybe somewhere on your side? This was first time for me. :(

Hmmm, works now. Maybe I just missed them. Our local library used the fail whale as part of their summer reading program a few years ago and sort of credited twitter. Even though me and others pointed out that as being incorrect, they paid no attention.

Our CEO of the system got caught copying and pasting a Wikipedia article, changing 5 or 6 words and published it as their own. Again, even though they were called on it, they paid no attention.

Having said all that, at least they're not pulling what EA does and using a 7 year old version of vBulletin, one known for being hackable:

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=939940