I know that it's a known bug, but I didn't see if people knew why.
This might not be the case for all ping bugs, but I think I noticed one.

I was pinged by someone like this


I tried pinging a friend in the same way and they didn't get pinged from it.
I believe that an asterisk immediately following the ping is bungling it up.

@Dread Pirate: Ah, so it's something staff already know then. My bad.
I feel like I've been reporting old news all day. <_>

Thanks for the confirmation
At least I know now, so I can avoid doing the same, or inform others if they do it.