Wow, what a ridiculous dev-brain design
If I remember correctly it's baked into the main fork everyone uses, it's not like OPs instance decided to do this, I'm not even sure they can turn it off
But I think it all comes down to whoever made the moan code, not anticipating people would "at someone" as a phrase and not really be wanting to "@ them". Linguistically it's cool and all, I just want them to stop the crossposts now that people are using it without intending it literally