MSC4269: Unambiguous mentions in body

Signed-off-by: Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) <[email protected]>

Author: heftig

Diff for: proposals/4269-unambiguous-mentions-in-body.md

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+# MSC4269: Unambiguous mentions in body
+
+The use of display names makes it difficult to parse user mentions from a message body. Clients can
+also make it difficult to type user IDs without having them replaced with a mention.
+
+Some clients, such as bots, have no use for or do not want to deal with the complexity of parsing
+the pseudo-HTML of the `formatted_body`. In addition, the `m.mentions` added by [MSC3952] is not
+enough, either, as the listed user IDs lack the context of the message body.
+
+Translating the display names in the message body back to user IDs is difficult, if not impossible.
+However, the reverse operation - translating unambiguous user IDs in the body into display names -
+is trivial in comparison.
+
+Thus it is proposed that the message `body` should contain user IDs instead of display names. 
+
+## Proposal
+
+The specified client behavior for user and room mentions is modified so that the event's `body`
+should contain the unambiguous user ID, canonical room alias or room ID instead of the anchor's
+text component.
+
+## Potential issues
+
+Some clients, especially bridges, might rely on the body containing the display name for a good user
+experience. However, it would not be difficult to modify such a client to translate user IDs in the
+message body to display names.
+
+## Alternatives
+
+- Change the spec so that the anchor's text component is the user ID. It would make user mentions
+  more consistent with room mentions. This changes the `formatted_body` as well.
+
+- Specify the use of markdown links in the `body` matching the anchors in the `formatted_body`.
+  While easier to parse, it's not as simple as just the user ID.
+
+- Bracket display names in the `body` somehow, making it possible to look them up, perhaps with the
+  help of `m.mentions`. However, they remain ambiguous.
+
+## Security considerations
+
+None.
+
+## Unstable prefix
+
+None.
+
+## Dependencies
+
+None.
+
+[MSC3952]: https://github.com/matrix-org/matrix-spec-proposals/pull/3952