Change the Green Online Icon to an Icon reflecting the IM Protocol?

[Chris Forsythe]

On Oct 11, 2007, at 4:04 AM, Charliep wrote:

> NONE of that gives you a reason or rationale to impose the  
> disadvantages of
> your handicap on the rest of the world. I think every author wants  
> to design
> a product that will be available to the widest range of readers.

Charlie,

I think there's an expectation problem here, specifically, your  
expectations of the product/project. You compared pidgin to trillian,  
but you forgot to take into account the differences in focus and  
goals. In the end, trillian is about making a buck, which in turn  
drives their focus to provide the users exactly what they want. The  
focus of the pidgin team is to provide the best application that they  
feel they can, which means sacrificing some features when they feel  
that it is pointless.

Personally I find protocol icons silly. Multiprotocol im clients  
should try to hide the protocols, not flaunt them. I agree  
wholeheartedly with the decision to hide them. Multiprotocol im  
clients, in my opinion, should be striving to make the entire  
experience between protocols as seamless as possible. People use  
multiprotocol im clients because they need a single client to handle  
everything, why then should they have that experience ruined by  
having to remember the different protocols and what they do. It's  
quite an odd situation.

If you truly care about customization, get a mac and then get Adium.  
If trillian completely covers your needs for customization, then  
stick with that. However, if you truly feel that this must show up in  
pidgin, you'll probably want to get a whole lot nicer. Vitrol doesn't  
help man. If I came into your business, said your product was shit,  
and then told you to do what I wanted or else, what would you do?  
Don't answer that, because it's a rhetorical question pointing out  
the situation you're now in.

Anyhow, on to the point. Here's a couple of things you can probably  
run with:

1) Determine if pidgin actually fits your needs. If it does not, stop  
here.

2) I would suggest thinking about it, reviewing the long  
conversations with the pros/cons. Ignore the passion people obviously  
have for their opinions on both sides, and get down to the facts. You  
called this decision stupid a few times, but the people who work on  
pidgin obviously aren't stupid, so try to figure out why they are  
doing what they are doing. Once you can see it from their point of  
view, you'll have a better argument for what you want.

3) Figure out why you were rude on this list, and fix that. Everyone  
on the list could do this probably, not just yourself. You  
represented yourself poorly, I know you didn't mean to. It's worth  
the time it takes to review things you've said and the type of  
responses you got back.

4) Figure out if protocol icons are truly important, or if there is  
an underlying reason why they are important to you. For instance, to  
me they would be important to know the differences in features  
between the protocols, but that's not the only reason they are  
probably useful in some sense.

5) If you truly feel that this feature must be readded to pidgin,  
come up with an eloquent request which addresses the points the  
developers have stood by in a reasonable fashion. Avoid being rude or  
insulting so that the behavior you exude does not affect the  
judgement of your points. I'm sure that the folks on this list will  
broach the subject in the same manner that you present it.


As of right now I feel that this thread is going to decay. As Hylke  
just said: "We listen well to grounded arguments. ". Take this to  
heart, come back when you're better prepared with a logical response,  
and I think you'll like what you see a lot better.

Hope this helps.

Chris Forsythe
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