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I do not understand this limitation. If there were 3 comments on my answer, and I want to respond, why should I not be able to alert all 3 to my response, and put the whole response in one comment? It seems wasteful to just do 2 comments.

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    I believe the author of the parent Question or Answer automatically gets notified about all Comments.
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Aug 22, 2011 at 20:27
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    I know. but that does not help be notify two other people that commented on my answer (or question for that matter)
    – soandos
    Commented Aug 22, 2011 at 20:28
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    Yeah, that's correct. (I was just pointing out some related information, which I know doesn't actually answer your question, hence my choice to post it as a comment.)
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Aug 22, 2011 at 20:29
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    By the way, I do think it would be nice if users with 5,000 points could address two users in a comment, and users with 10,000 points could address more than two, because I suspect that users with more points would be far less likely to abuse this (plus I don't see the potential for abuse since comments are limited in size anyway, and also because flagging can be very effective). P.S.: +1 for your question because I think it's a good one.
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Aug 22, 2011 at 20:34

2 Answers 2

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I think it's probably a feature that can be abused pretty easily. A desperate user might start mentioning the names of everyone he can find in an attempt to bring attention to the question.

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    i've seen this happen on irc, and SE chat. Not pretty.
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Aug 23, 2011 at 2:22
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    per @journeyman I agree; you get two notifications per comment -- the post owner (always) and 1 other person (using @name. That really should be sufficient.
    – Jeff Atwood
    Commented Aug 25, 2011 at 2:27
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This was declined on MSO

there's no valid case for "I need to notify a large number of people" -- at least not one I will support by writing software for it. – Jeff Atwood♦

the comment box explicitly disallows submission of comments with two @name notifications now, FYI

So no cake for you

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    Large number !=2
    – soandos
    Commented Aug 22, 2011 at 21:04
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    No cake! Would a muffin with icing be okay? ;-P
    – Randolf Richardson
    Commented Aug 22, 2011 at 21:41

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