Discussion board reply, tagging a person to notify them

Question

We are using the Discussion Board found in the Community Site (Sharepoint Online), and realizing that we cannot tag users in a reply to a discussion topic.

When I start to tag, upon typing the @ sign, a notice comes up saying “FYI, the people you mention will see your post even if they aren't members of this site.”

I can tag/select a person, and it looks like they’ve been tagged, but they receive no email notification.

Our SP is set to use Yammer instead of Newsfeed, could that be why?

Tagging is my first choice, as it’s simple and obvious. But I would be open to a workaround which enabled me to add a People column to whatever folder view is used for message replies. I realize that message is its own content type, but I can’t seem to modify the flat folder view for displaying a Discussion board post and all its replies.

I just want to be able to notify someone in a reply. Which isn’t the same thing as notifying someone of an initial post.

Many thanks in advance, Matthew

Answer 1

I switched Sharepoint Admin > Settings > Enterprise Social Collaboration from "Use Yammer.com" to "User Sharepoint Newsfeed", I waited 30 minutes, now the email notifications are working! Also, the Newsfeed app appeared in our App Picker. Hope this helps someone else someday.