Use case for per-protocol icons

[Luke Schierer]

On Fri, Aug 03, 2007 at 10:07:32PM -0400, Josh Williams wrote:
> On 8/3/07, Darrell Michaud <DMichaud at pragmatech.com> wrote:
> > While trying to find ways to enable the old-style per-protocol icons I
> > stumbled upon this thread:
> > [..]
> 
> My case is that I have lots of buddies who use more than one protocol,
> and I need to know which account I'm talking to. There are many
> reasons for this, such as the person may have one protocol signed in
> at home and one at work, in which case I'd need to know that I'm
> writing to the location they're at.

I find it curious that people have no concept of when their friends
work.  I find it equally curious that people have so little self
control, that they cannot tell someone who IMs them that they are at
work and cannot talk, or that people have so little self esteem, that if
a friend does not respond (because they are at work and cannot spare the
time), they would be hurt or crushed. 

I find it even more curious that it is a huge inconvience to alias the
@work screenname to differentiate.

I find it *even more* curious that these people have an @work screenname
on a different protocol, never sign on both from both locations, AND
give that @work screenname to friends.

Basically, this feature request sounds like "I can't hack life, so
please provide me every crutch you can imagine - even if it will shoot
me in the foot now and then" Because, as we have stated repeatedly, 
using protocol to determine location is NOT going to reliably work. 

(a somewhat tired and gruchy)
luke