Introducing the Cardsmith Changeblog

Hi, Sarah Joy from the Cardsmith development team here. You might recognize my name from the in-app messages you receive when we deploy new features and bug fixes. While those messages are useful to give you quick overviews of what’s new, we thought that, from time to time, you might also appreciate detailed explanations/guides about those new functions. That’s what this blog post is: a closer look at the @mentions feature in our most recent update. Expect more posts like this one as we continue to improve and refine Cardsmith in the weeks and months ahead.

@Mentions and In-app Notifications

Before we introduced @mentions, Cardsmithers like you could communicate in the app through Board Comments. But, in order to notify another board user (let’s call her Jenny) that you had left a comment for her, you would need to notify Jenny outside of Cardsmith—for instance, by sending her an email or Slack message. Not super efficient.

Now, when you write a Board Comment, all you need to do to grab Jenny’s attention is mention her via her @username. The next time Jenny logs in, she’ll see a red notification maker on the board indicating that she’s been mentioned in a comment.

Let’s pause here for a second, because if you have a Basic account, you might be wondering: what in the world are Board Comments? Board Comments are a Premium feature that allows users to communicate about a Shared Board within the board itself. Whenever another user shares their board with you, click on that board and you’ll find the Comments under the speech bubble icon in the upper right section of your screen. Remember: with a Basic account you will only see Board Comments in Boards that have been shared with you.

Create Your @username

Before you start mentioning people in comments, make sure to set up your @username. Otherwise, people won’t be able to tag you! If you haven’t claimed yours yet, visit your Homeboard and follow the directions in the popup to create your @username. You can also create your @username in your Account Settings.  

Find Out Other Users’ @usernames

There are two ways to discover other board users’ @usernames:

1. You can look in the Sharing Menu, or
2. Type the @ sign into a new Board Comment to see a drop-down list of board users and their @usernames.

If you can’t find someone’s @username, it’s because they haven’t made one yet.  

Tag (or Mention) Someone in a Board Comment

It’s easy to mention someone in a comment. And if you’re on Facebook or Twitter, it should come as second nature.

After you type the at-sign (@) in a new Board Comment, either continue typing a user’s @username to filter the drop-down list; or use your arrow keys to move up and down the list, then hit Enter or Tab on your keyboard to select the person you wish to tag.

Notifications

Whenever someone has mentioned you in a Board Comment, you’ll see a red circle in two places indicating notification:

1. on the corner of the corresponding board in your Homeboard view, and
2. on the Board Comments menu within that board.

The number in the circle specifies how many times you were mentioned.  

  All set? If you have any questions about how to use this new feature or suggestions on how we can improve it, please reach out to us using the handy feedback button in the lower right corner of your screen. We would love to hear your thoughts and input. And don’t forget to @mention your team (especially Jenny) to tell them how awesome they are!