feature request - with an explanation

[Richard Laager]

On Tue, 2007-05-29 at 23:11 +0300, Ivan Levchenko wrote:
> It really DOES matter what protocol I am
> using when i am talking to a person.

Not really. Your concern over sending passwords would be just as valid
if you sent something to someone via XMPP, but they were at another
domain. For example, if *I* was on your buddy list, the password would
still travel the network, even though I'm using XMPP.

For the password concern, you may want to consider something like the
gaim-encryption software (is it pidgin-encryption now?). That'd do
end-to-end encryption with Pidgin-to-Pidgin conversations, regardless of
protocol.

> I don't want to talk about my
> personal things via a work account.

There's the key, right there. You are distinguishing between work and
non-work accounts, not between protocols. It could just as easily be
that you have people on XMPP at work and XMPP for personal stuff. In
your particular case, the boundaries happen to split right now by
protocol, but that doesn't make it good in general.

I'd recommend this:

CONTACT: John Smith (Work)
 - xmpp:jsmith at mycorp.com
 - msn:jsmith at hotmail.com

CONTACT: John Smith (Personal)
 - aim:jsmithdude1234

Then you get the right results. You keep your work conversations
separate from personal ones. When you view your logs, you keep those
separate as well, so you're not pulling up personal stuff when you
wanted work logs. Later, if you start using XMPP for personal things,
stuff still just works. You no longer need to map protocols into other
meanings.

Alternatively, you could even do this:

CONTACT: John Smith
 ALIASED BUDDY: John Smith (Work), xmpp:jsmith at mycorp.com
 ALIASED BUDDY: John Smith (Work), msn:jsmith at hotmail.com
 ALIASED BUDDY: John Smith (Personal), aim:jsmithdude1234

There your logs and conversations would merge together. To alias buddies
individually, you need to expand the contact and then right-click on the
buddy and alias it.

Something like this would better address your password concerns:

CONTACT: John Smith (Work)
 xmpp:jsmith at mycorp.com
 ALIASED BUDDY: John Smith (Work - INSECURE), msn:jsmith at hotmail.com

CONTACT: John Smith (Personal)
 - aim:jsmithdude1234

CONTACT: Joe Contractor
 - xmpp:joe at someothercorp.com (INSECURE)

Aside from a one-time pain to alias people, is there anything wrong with
this idea?

Richard
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