diff --git a/frontend/src/components/tasks/partials/Comments.vue b/frontend/src/components/tasks/partials/Comments.vue
index 6b2d1c09c..519e3b260 100644
--- a/frontend/src/components/tasks/partials/Comments.vue
+++ b/frontend/src/components/tasks/partials/Comments.vue
@@ -210,7 +210,7 @@
 </template>
 
 <script setup lang="ts">
-import {ref, reactive, computed, shallowReactive, watch, nextTick} from 'vue'
+import {ref, reactive, computed, shallowReactive, watch} from 'vue'
 import {useI18n} from 'vue-i18n'
 
 import CustomTransition from '@/components/misc/CustomTransition.vue'
@@ -368,13 +368,6 @@ async function addComment() {
 		return
 	}
 
-	// This makes the editor trigger its mounted function again which makes it forget every input
-	// it currently has in its textarea. This is a counter-hack to a hack inside of vue-easymde
-	// which made it impossible to detect change from the outside. Therefore the component would
-	// not update if new content from the outside was made available.
-	// See https://github.com/NikulinIlya/vue-easymde/issues/3
-	editorActive.value = false
-	nextTick(() => (editorActive.value = true))
 	creating.value = true
 
 	try {
diff --git a/pkg/models/mentions.go b/pkg/models/mentions.go
index 1fb00ca19..f602201e1 100644
--- a/pkg/models/mentions.go
+++ b/pkg/models/mentions.go
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 package models
 
 import (
-	"strconv"
 	"strings"
 
 	"code.vikunja.io/api/pkg/user"
@@ -27,48 +26,41 @@ import (
 )
 
 func FindMentionedUsersInText(s *xorm.Session, text string) (users map[int64]*user.User, err error) {
-	userIDs := extractMentionedUserIDs(text)
-	if len(userIDs) == 0 {
+	usernames := extractMentionedUsernames(text)
+	if len(usernames) == 0 {
 		return
 	}
 
-	return user.GetUsersByIDs(s, userIDs)
+	return user.GetUsersByUsername(s, usernames, true)
 }
 
-// extractMentionedUserIDs parses HTML content and extracts user IDs from mention spans.
-// It looks for <span class="mention" data-id="123"> elements and returns the user IDs.
-func extractMentionedUserIDs(htmlText string) []int64 {
+// extractMentionedUsernames parses HTML content and extracts usernames from mention spans.
+// It looks for <mention-user data-id="username"> elements and returns the usernames.
+func extractMentionedUsernames(htmlText string) []string {
 	doc, err := html.Parse(strings.NewReader(htmlText))
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil
 	}
 
-	var userIDs []int64
-	seen := make(map[int64]bool) // Deduplicate user IDs
+	usernames := []string{}
+	seen := make(map[string]bool) // Deduplicate usernames
 
 	var traverse func(*html.Node)
 	traverse = func(n *html.Node) {
-		if n.Type == html.ElementNode && n.Data == "span" {
-			isMention := false
+		if n.Type == html.ElementNode && n.Data == "mention-user" {
 			var dataID string
 
-			// Check if this span has class="mention" and extract data-id
+			// Extract data-id attribute
 			for _, attr := range n.Attr {
-				if attr.Key == "class" && strings.Contains(attr.Val, "mention") {
-					isMention = true
-				}
 				if attr.Key == "data-id" {
 					dataID = attr.Val
 				}
 			}
 
-			// If this is a mention span with a valid data-id, extract the user ID
-			if isMention && dataID != "" {
-				if userID, err := strconv.ParseInt(dataID, 10, 64); err == nil {
-					if !seen[userID] {
-						userIDs = append(userIDs, userID)
-						seen[userID] = true
-					}
+			if dataID != "" {
+				if !seen[dataID] {
+					usernames = append(usernames, dataID)
+					seen[dataID] = true
 				}
 			}
 		}
@@ -80,5 +72,5 @@ func extractMentionedUserIDs(htmlText string) []int64 {
 	}
 
 	traverse(doc)
-	return userIDs
+	return usernames
 }
diff --git a/pkg/models/mentions_test.go b/pkg/models/mentions_test.go
index bc311927a..e7da46c0e 100644
--- a/pkg/models/mentions_test.go
+++ b/pkg/models/mentions_test.go
@@ -47,27 +47,27 @@ func TestFindMentionedUsersInText(t *testing.T) {
 		},
 		{
 			name:      "one user at the beginning",
-			text:      `<p><span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="1" data-label="user1">@user1</span> Lorem Ipsum</p>`,
+			text:      `<p><mention-user data-id="user1">@user1</mention-user> Lorem Ipsum</p>`,
 			wantUsers: []*user.User{user1},
 		},
 		{
 			name:      "one user at the end",
-			text:      `<p>Lorem Ipsum <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="1" data-label="user1">@user1</span></p>`,
+			text:      `<p>Lorem Ipsum <mention-user data-id="user1">@user1</mention-user></p>`,
 			wantUsers: []*user.User{user1},
 		},
 		{
 			name:      "one user in the middle",
-			text:      `<p>Lorem <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="1" data-label="user1">@user1</span> Ipsum</p>`,
+			text:      `<p>Lorem <mention-user data-id="user1">@user1</mention-user> Ipsum</p>`,
 			wantUsers: []*user.User{user1},
 		},
 		{
 			name:      "same user multiple times",
-			text:      `<p>Lorem <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="1" data-label="user1">@user1</span> Ipsum <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="1" data-label="user1">@user1</span> <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="1" data-label="user1">@user1</span></p>`,
+			text:      `<p>Lorem <mention-user data-id="user1">@user1</mention-user> Ipsum <mention-user data-id="user1">@user1</mention-user> <mention-user data-id="user1">@user1</mention-user></p>`,
 			wantUsers: []*user.User{user1},
 		},
 		{
 			name:      "Multiple users",
-			text:      `<p>Lorem <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="1" data-label="user1">@user1</span> Ipsum <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="2" data-label="user2">@user2</span></p>`,
+			text:      `<p>Lorem <mention-user data-id="user1">@user1</mention-user> Ipsum <mention-user data-id="user2">@user2</mention-user></p>`,
 			wantUsers: []*user.User{user1, user2},
 		},
 	}
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ func TestSendingMentionNotification(t *testing.T) {
 		task, err := GetTaskByIDSimple(s, 32)
 		require.NoError(t, err)
 		tc := &TaskComment{
-			Comment: `<p>Lorem Ipsum <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="1" data-label="user1">@user1</span> <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="2" data-label="user2">@user2</span> <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="3" data-label="user3">@user3</span> <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="4" data-label="user4">@user4</span> <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="5" data-label="user5">@user5</span> <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="6" data-label="user6">@user6</span></p>`,
+			Comment: `<p>Lorem Ipsum <mention-user data-id="user1">@user1</mention-user> <mention-user data-id="user2">@user2</mention-user> <mention-user data-id="user3">@user3</mention-user> <mention-user data-id="user4">@user4</mention-user> <mention-user data-id="user5">@user5</mention-user> <mention-user data-id="user6">@user6</mention-user></p>`,
 			TaskID:  32, // user2 has access to the project that task belongs to
 		}
 		err = tc.Create(s, u)
@@ -156,7 +156,7 @@ func TestSendingMentionNotification(t *testing.T) {
 		task, err := GetTaskByIDSimple(s, 32)
 		require.NoError(t, err)
 		tc := &TaskComment{
-			Comment: `<p>Lorem Ipsum <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="2" data-label="user2">@user2</span></p>`,
+			Comment: `<p>Lorem Ipsum <mention-user data-id="user2">@user2</mention-user></p>`,
 			TaskID:  32, // user2 has access to the project that task belongs to
 		}
 		err = tc.Create(s, u)
@@ -170,7 +170,7 @@ func TestSendingMentionNotification(t *testing.T) {
 		_, err = notifyMentionedUsers(s, &task, tc.Comment, n)
 		require.NoError(t, err)
 
-		_, err = notifyMentionedUsers(s, &task, `<p>Lorem Ipsum <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="2" data-label="user2">@user2</span> <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="3" data-label="user3">@user3</span></p>`, n)
+		_, err = notifyMentionedUsers(s, &task, `<p>Lorem Ipsum <mention-user data-id="user2">@user2</mention-user> <mention-user data-id="user3">@user3</mention-user></p>`, n)
 		require.NoError(t, err)
 
 		// The second time mentioning the user in the same task should not create another notification
diff --git a/pkg/models/task_comments_test.go b/pkg/models/task_comments_test.go
index c2a0cf63c..8d41afc60 100644
--- a/pkg/models/task_comments_test.go
+++ b/pkg/models/task_comments_test.go
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ func TestTaskComment_Create(t *testing.T) {
 		task, err := GetTaskByIDSimple(s, 32)
 		require.NoError(t, err)
 		tc := &TaskComment{
-			Comment: `<p>Lorem Ipsum <span class="mention" data-type="mention" data-id="2" data-label="user2">@user2</span></p>`,
+			Comment: `<p>Lorem Ipsum <mention-user data-id="user2">@user2</mention-user></p>`,
 			TaskID:  32, // user2 has access to the project that task belongs to
 		}
 		err = tc.Create(s, u)