Is it okay for a user to link to a different person's profile, if they already have a post on the page?

Question

A suggested edit to an answer came up in the queue today. It's an excellent edit and worthy of approval, and I love to encourage editors! I was definitely going to approve it, but wasn't sure if it needed a change first.

The original poster made reference to the author of another answer to the same question by using the @user format. The suggested edit changed that reference to a link to the profile of the other user.

Obviously, the referenced user's profile is available on the same page, so anyone who wants to can access it. I just don't remember having seen a post linked that way, and wanted to know the protocol, if there is one.

Should I have approved the entire edit as it was submitted, or taken out the link to the profile and left that part of the original post alone? Does it even matter?

This is absolutely in no way meant to call attention to or insult that editor. It will help my editing in the future to know the best thing to do. Perhaps I should have been doing this myself and didn't know it!

Answer 1

Writing @user in a comment sends a notification to user. This is a very helpful feature. Writing @user in an answer (or a question) does nothing. In general, for questions and answers, adding a link to the appropriate content (i.e., an answer, comment, or user profile) is better since the @user is not intended for user, but other readers.

Answer 2

Is it okay for a user to link to a different person's profile, if they already have a post on the page?

Yes, even if they don't have posts on this (TGO) page. Every public profile can be linked. I often do it myself like for example

See Sue's answer: ....

(mention the hyperlink to the user profile and to the answer itself). And off course it's not a necessity to do so! If you don't like this link-way just don't use it.

I would suggest to leave the edit as it is (so, with the link to the user's profile).