tl;dr Support + important notes bolded below.
I'm too lazy to check out this forum addon (i.e. I don't know how it
exactly work), but the argument about un-changeable usernames is invalid... but counter-argument is invalid as well.
Basically, old pings do not need to link anywhere. Normally that thing is done so thing after @ is recognized as valid username (matches up in database), and ping is added to the table with pings for particular user id, yup.
If username is changed, the ping is dead - it doesn't show new username nor links anywhere*.
(Of course with more sophisticated code it can do that, but that can be heavy for the server.)
[Note: I have no experience with coding pings, but I have some experience with coding - all above is how I would've done it, but I am pretty sure it's that way or very similar. If anyone is interested, I can further explain parts of my post.]*If pings were ever linked to profiles.
If they were a) that's extra server load, b) abandoned usernames that are later taken by someone else = ping links to wrong person.
For people pointing out situations like "user wanted to be notified, but changed their un, so I can't ping them!", then it's user's who changed their un problem. That's exactly how things work like now in some topics - some people note down only usernames, not id's, so they can't check if the username's been changed (unless that user posted in the topic and is easily trackable, e.g. by form with previous username).
Pinging using id's (like on Aywas) is not good for a site with many kids on (if I recall correctly, Aywas is advertised as site for "mature" people, teens and young adults), because a) Many topics with questions about how to ping. b) Typos and pinging wrong person. c) Mass-pings ("let's ping every number from x to x+n!").
Also - only numeric usernames (such as mine) would be confusing.
As for special-character un's - maybe that would reduce their number a bit, lol.
Important thing to check in this addonPinging usernames with spaces in them. It's important to check if it's implemented and if yes - how it's done (e.g. reco uses @"username with spaces", normal usernames can be pinged that way too).
As I said, I'm too lazy to check this addon not, but if someone kicks me in a few days, I may do so (but only if the code can be previewed w/o phpBB forum, I'm too lazy to install a testing forum, I have one using another engine already).
ProblemUsernames can contain any characters, right? Does that include double quotations (") and at symbol (@)?
A bit offtopic:
*JACKAL* wrote:[...]
Thing is Aywas was written in HTML/CSS and not PHP so I'm not sure how that would get coded on CS.
[...]
Nope. It couldn't have been written in only html/css - if so, it would be static. No login, no posts, no forms that are displayed after being sent (forms are html thing, but for basic stuff, e.g. mail contact forms)...
Sites
always show to user as html/css/js mix - php is only a server-side language.
(Sorry, I had to correct you.)