Comments, mentions, and asking Dropstone in a thread
Comment on any Dropstone reply in a thread, mention a person with @name so they are told, and name @dropstone in a comment to get an answer in the margin without taking a turn. Comments render markdown and formulas, and Dropstone's own comments carry a verified tick.
Comments are for the conversation about a reply: a question, a disagreement, a "this is the one". They sit under the reply they are about, in threads, and never take a turn from Dropstone. They work in your own chats too, not only shared ones.
Comment on a reply
Hover a reply and choose Comment. Write it, press Enter, and it appears in a thread under that reply with your name and face. Reply to a comment to continue its thread; a long thread folds with a "more replies" row and the faces of who is in it.
You can edit or delete your own comments. Deleting one that has replies tells you how many go with it.
Comments render the way a reply does: bold, links, inline code, short lists, and formulas written in LaTeX. A quoted passage inside a comment is drawn as a quote.
Mention someone
Every account has a handle. Type @ anywhere text is written, in a message, a comment, a reply, a note to people, an announcement, or the note on a highlight, and a list of the people in the chat appears. Pick one, or keep typing to filter. Enter completes the name.
A mention does three things: it addresses that person, it marks the text for them, and it tells them they were named. Use one when something is for somebody in particular and it would otherwise be unclear who should act.
Dropstone uses mentions the same way. When its reply is for one person, it names them by handle, one or two per reply at most, and never as a greeting.
Where your mentions are
- The @ N badge in the chat header counts where you were named in this chat. Click it to jump to each one.
- The bell on the left lists where you were named in every other chat: who, where, in which chat, and when, with an unread count and Mark all as read.
The first time something arrives for you, or the first time you open the bell, the browser asks whether Dropstone may show notifications. Say no and the bell still works; it just does not pop.
Ask Dropstone in a thread
Name @dropstone in a comment and it answers under that comment, in the thread, not as a new turn in the conversation. It is told to write a margin note rather than a page: a few sentences at most, no tools, and the answer streams into the thread as Dropstone is replying.
Dropstone knows who is in the chat when it answers here, and it reads the thread it was asked in, the reply the thread is under, and the conversation around it. In a private chat, a thread is answered as yours.
Once Dropstone has answered in a thread, that thread is visible to it from then on, and its own comments are attributed to it on later turns, so it does not contradict itself.
The verified tick
Anyone can call themselves Dropstone in a comment. So wherever Dropstone's name appears, in a thread, in a folded thread, in the bell, in the card that says who an @name is, or in the mention list, a tick beside it says the comment really came from the model. Click the tick and it says what it verifies. Only Dropstone ever carries one.
Related articles
- Work on a chat with other peopleA Dropstone chat can have several people in it at once. Invite them as editors or viewers, take turns asking Dropstone, talk to each other alongside it, comment on replies, mention someone, highlight what matters, and Dropstone keeps the whole thing in view.
- Highlight a passage, quote it, and ask about itSelect text in a reply to highlight it in one of five colours, add a note, and ask Dropstone about that exact passage. Quote a passage into your next question with follow-ups written for it. Dropstone marks key phrases in its own replies the same way.
- Chat together: turns, the queue, and notes to peopleIn a shared chat one person asks Dropstone at a time. A message sent during someone else's turn waits in a queue and goes next. A message can also go to the people in the chat, or to the whole room as a standing announcement that Dropstone follows.
- What Dropstone knows in a shared chatIn a shared chat Dropstone reads the whole conversation with who said each part, every announcement, and any highlight, note or comment that has been made visible to it. It remembers all of it for the length of the chat. Your memory stays yours.