Status indicators in tabs

[Sean Egan]

On 6/23/07, Lukas Barth <tinloaf at goerresonline.de> wrote:
> I noticed Pidgin's layout changing so that it's not possible anymore to
> tell what status a buddy is in from the tabs of the buddies' conversations.

While this is how it currently is in mtn, the issue is certainly not decided.

> I think that removing the status indicators from the tabs had no
> advantages (or am I wrong?), so would it be possible to bring them back?

As far as I'm concerned, the largest advantage (unforeseen by myself)
is that you can now essentially double the number of tabs visible
before you have to scroll. This has long been an issue. The purpose of
the tabs is to manage multiple conversations, and by maximizing the
number of tabs, it can better serve that purpose. It's not really
intended to be a "mini-buddy list," as you're using it.

Obviously, though, every time we make a UI change, we run into people
who are using that particular UI in a completely original way. :)

The original issue was that, with the new "info pane," the status icon
of the currently active tab is largely redundant. A few people have
stated that the status icon in the tab is primarily useful for telling
the status of the active conversation, not of others.