Show value in View

Hello All, I am working on a microblogging application.(similar to twitter) In my controller there is a method called replypopUp.It is a method that runs when the reply link on timeline is clicked.When I a click on the link a pop-up appears in which there is a text area and a post button.Inside the text area,the name of the user to whom I am replying should appear in the form '@username:' Now in my controller method I am taking that user's name using     @posted_by_name = params[:posted_by] In my view my text area looks like this

<textarea name="message" id="message" maxlength ="400" style="overflow:auto;width:100%;height: 56px ;"onkeyup="checkPostFieldLength(message,'remaining', 400);"onkeydown="checkPostFieldLength(message,'remaining', 400);"onmouseout="checkPostFieldLength(message,'remaining', 400);">@< %=h @posted_by_name %>:</textarea>

The text within <% %> is the username I am trying to paste by default inside the text area However when I run the application,I only get" @:" in the text area.The name of the user does not appear. I have also tried to check using http watch,and I see the url being passed correctly,so there is no chance of params[:posted_by] being taken as a null value. Kindly let me know if my way of displaying the valaue is incorrect.If yes how should I display it in my view?

Thanks in Advance

Regards Chandrika

This is not a rails-core question. Please ask this question on the rubyonrails-talk list or on IRC #rubyonrails