That is so interesting because I know that most of us who were trained to write in a college setting were taught to use only says or said, depending on tense. LOL The idea is that says is a word that your eye will just skip over that doesn't stick out or detract from dialogue.

I find myself endorsing the concept; I can't remember the last time I wrote anything other than says for dialogue attribution, and yet most of the published fic I read does use a variety of attribution tags.

I wonder how other people feel about this.

I might make a top level post about this.