This is my new constructive idea.

[John Bailey]

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Andrew Rodland wrote:
> Stop. Stop, stop, stop. Hurting. Open. Source.
> 
> Reopen http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/1134, then close it as "fixed" when 
> you can honestly say you did. Or close it as "wontfix" to tell the world in 
> plain terms that you don't think you need to serve your users.

This ticket will not be reopened.  It should not have been closed as invalid;
instead it should have been closed as duplicate.  Invalid vs. duplicate doesn't
much matter for the purposes of this argument though.

Reading over that ticket proves that like everyone else who complains about
this, you're not taking the time to consider any of the arguments we as
contributors and developers have made justifying the changes.

I certainly can't speak for the Pidgin developers, but I can say that what work
I have done on Pidgin is because I like the direction in which it is going and
want to help.  Simple is better, to a point.  The removal of protocol icons from
the buddy list is a *good* change.  There is no loss of functionality whatsoever
caused by this change; instead this is a gain because it makes the most
important thing--the buddy's status--take the center stage.

Sean himself has even made a blog entry on this subject pointing out that there
was an insane amount of whining when prpl icons were put in the buddy list in
0.60, which was a change from the prior behaviors.  He then points out that now
there's a ton of whining about removing them.  In retrospect, I'm thinking
Pidgin should have skipped the prpl icons entirely (like Adium, which apparently
everyone seems to think is the holy grail of IM client interfaces) so we
wouldn't have to listen to this crap now.

I'm sure my reply is going to spread hate and discontent, and frankly on this
issue I no longer care.  As far as I'm concerned, anyone who dislikes a decision
made with respect to Pidgin development is free to use their rights under the
GPL to fork Pidgin and release a version without said modifications.  Anyone not
caring to do that is also free to find another IM client, of which there are a
plethora.  I, as a Pidgin contributor, work on Pidgin and currently its
associated wiki content because I want to and because I like what is going on
within it.  I firmly believe that the Pidgin community, including users,
contributors, and developers, would do much better if discontented people
actually exercised the rights I mentioned above instead of wasting our time.

John
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