@Missy50 Welcome to DBG!
I completely understand your concern, I had the same issue at first glance but it all comes together over time. To add on to what
@2earls's stated above, when you type in "@" without the parentheses and start typing a name like "@2ear" for example, you'll see that you can select 2earls as a user reference which notifies the user that you mentioned them. This works for all members and that's pretty much the hardest thing to get down at first as posting on the forums are concerned.
If you'd like advice abbreviations or terms you can contact a moderator or myself for assistance with that. Seeing you do not have the necessary post count to send a private message, you can go to my profile or a moderators profile and press the "poke" button, that's how I got 2earls attention when I couldn't send a private message back then. I guess you can compare it to facebook pokes, you can use them to be friendly or to get somebodies attention.
Remember to read up on the forums rules aswell, it's important that every user obeys the rules. If the rules are followed there will never be an issue.
The forum thread regarding the rules can be found here (you may click the link to open it in a new tab):
Don't be afraid to ask questions. Knowledge is power, power is success.
-VII