Mea Culpa - I was wrong

[Charliep]

It was wrong of me to ever say that the decisions of others were "Stupid". I
recognize that the developers working on Pidgin are very smart people, and
every decision made during the development process has valid reasons.

The underlying reason for my original comments is inconsequential. I should
have shown respect to the people who have put their hard hours into this
oustanding project. I was wrong. 

Sometimes with the anonymity of the Internet you can say things that you
would definitely not do or say in professional life. This is what happened
to me in this case - I got carried away. Please accept my apology to
everyone.


I do not buy the argument that Icons that include Protocol information
provide less information. It is very simple to design Protocol icons which
allso include Available, Away, Busy for each different protocol, and these
icons are very easy to understand. In fact, for a user who has been using
multiple IM clients, they are going to be more familiar with these Protocol
specific icons.

I believe that the utility of these icons is from a customer acquisition /
customer migration point of view. The avid Pidgin who advocate a uniform
icon are no doubt using the combined messaging feature of Pidgin
extensively. I do not use these features because I just began using Pidgin.

For a user making a migration from multiple IM clients on his machine to a
single IM client with multiple protocols, the first step the user will take
is to use the replacement client in much the same way as he used multiple
clients. As the user gains experience and familiarity with Pidgin they may
start to use the combined messaging features because they are now available. 

If the user tries the software, doesn't really like the experience and
uninstalls it then all of the efforts of all of the developers have been in
vain. So the utility of adding this minor feature enhancement will be to get
more users who will eventually STOP using this feature.

>From my personal standpoint, I tend to remember what IM protocol a person
uses. I look for the category I place people in (by continent), then the
protocol then the name. The present implementation of Pidgin has removed one
of the categories I use to find people I want to message to in my buddy
list.

My repeated point is that the engineering cost to include this feature will
not harm the existing userbase and the engineering requirements are
relatively low. I do not see a valid reason NOT to include this feature, and
indeed the present implementation includes this feature but refuses to let
me turn off the icons I do not want to see - yet. While the present
developers may think adding my 'dumb' feature is a bad idea, you are the
expert users of your software. It makes sense to include functions for the
'dumber' new users like me so that we can learn more about the simpler
features you have implemented.



Ethan Blanton-3 wrote:
> 
> Michael Rozdoba spake unto us the following wisdom:
>> Would it be impolite of me to ask if most of the devs are roughly around 
>> the same age? Maybe I'm being judgemental but my guess would be you're 
>> young males, probably under 25. There seems to be quite a lot of 
>> aggression here, though maybe it's coincidence that I've just started 
>> reading the list when an emotive subject has come up.
> 
> In fact, the developers span all ages and stations in life.  I find it
> interesting that you feel that the *developers* are the angry and
> aggressive party in this discussion...
> 
> If you have not read the back story on this particular topic, then I
> suggest you do so before you toss any insults into the ring.
> 
> Ethan
> (Who is male, but not under 25, and has been polite in this
>  discussion, in the face of personal insults directed at the
>  development team, unsupported vitriolic attacks on design decisions,
>  and general ignorance.)
> 
> -- 
> The laws that forbid the carrying of arms are laws [that have no remedy
> for evils].  They disarm only those who are neither inclined nor
> determined to commit crimes.
> 		-- Cesare Beccaria, "On Crimes and Punishments", 1764
> 
>  
> _______________________________________________
> Devel mailing list
> Devel at pidgin.im
> http://pidgin.im/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/devel
> 
> 

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