Linking to user profiles using DText?

Since we can already link to posts, comments, pools, and forum posts using special DText formatting (eg, using post #597863), what would you think if we could link to user profiles using the same convention?

For example, say one of us would like to report users who are vandalizing content on the site. We could just type-up the following:

user #284007 and user #283071 should both be blocked because they're vandalizing ratings. They're also mean and should be hit over the head.

For the record, those links were made using custom DText URLs - but that's how it would essentially look like if we had this feature.

So, any thoughts on this? And would you consider this feature useful if we had it?

user #52664 would be consistent with the usual DText syntax, but it's not very readable. You have to follow the link to find out the user's actual name. You also have to look up their user id to make the link, instead of just using their name.

I'd prefer something like user:evazion. That way it's obvious who you're talking about and you don't have to look up the user's id to create the link.

Yeah, we should have a way to link to user profiles. The user #63502 syntax is kinda awkward though.

I think something like how wiki links are handled would be better, for example ((eidolon)) or <<eidolon>>.

I also think this is a good idea.

evazion said:
I'd prefer something like user:evazion. That way it's obvious who you're talking about and you don't have to look up the user's id to create the link.

eidolon said:
I think something like how wiki links are handled would be better, for example ((eidolon)) or <<eidolon>>.

Either of these would be great imo.

I'd be in favor of either of those two as well, given that using the 'user #XXXX' syntax probably isn't needed since we can meaningfully describe what we're linking to using the user's profile name instead (as per evazion's suggestion). Whereas, for 'post/comment/pool #XXXX', there's generally no way to completely describe what it is you're linking to unless you actually go to it - so that syntax is warranted.

In any case, it'd still be helpful to have some kind of short-hand method for quickly linking to profiles.

What about [ [user:evazion] ]? Also, could we please have a way to escape DText formatting? The inability to type [ [ as itself is incredibly frustrating.