Open Buddy list via single clicking the tray icon?

[Ethan Blanton]

Andrew Roeder spake unto us the following wisdom:
> Ethan Blanton elb at pidgin.im
> Tue Oct 23 00:34:54 EDT 2007 sent:
> > I'm sorry, did I miss the attached patch?
> 
> > Ethan
> 
> I still think we need a better community outlet.  Questions like this
> one and tons of others could/should be answered without any of them
> ever making it into the devel list, unless of course it is a
> discussion of "How to fix/Can we fix bug #".

There is support at pidgin.im -- however, that misses the point of the
problem in this thread.

User questions are fine, on devel at .  In fact, support@ was created not
because we don't want users on devel@, but because users thought
devel@ was not an appropriate forum for their questions.

The problem is one of entitlement, or delusions thereof.  This thread
started off with a user who made assertions and expressed sentiments
which could only have arisen[1] from a belief that the Pidgin project is
here to serve his every whim, and that any feature which is not
precisely as he expects is due to a massive project failure.  It is
the difference between this email:

  <Pidgin doesn't single-click and do etc. etc.>

  It would be nice if this functionality existed, as I find it useful
  to be able to hide and re-show the list, as well as change its
  stacking order, with a simple operation.

And this email:

  <Pidgin doesn't single click and do etc. etc.>

  Why have you people not done this?  Are you stupid?  <Other project>
  does it.  I thought Open Source was supposed to be better.

The latter is more the tone of the email we received.

> I think it is safe to say IRC is the only other outlet?  Not the best
> form either, any suggestions or ideas that have been previously
> brought up for such outside of a form of forums or wiki?
> 
> I'm sure this has been discussed before and I simply missed it, but I
> think a new method to keep users happy and "relatively" distanced from
> the developers might make everyone happier, so has it been considered?
> 
> Users seem less stupid
> (Everyone knows they are, quiet)
> Developers seem like less jerks.
> (Reminding your users that your humble excellence <developer here>
> gave you this software from their gracious heart. -Do not complain
> about Anything because you are insignificant- *coughs* doesn't make
> you friends)

This latter point is brought up *only* in cases where users express
unreasonable feelings of entitlement.  Open Source developers are not
servants put on this Earth to cater to the arbitrary whims of a
particular user, and I have no idea from where the common misconception
that they are arises.

> Yes, in a perfect world, all knowledge would be found on the trac and
> all users would go there to find their answers, I'm sure we have
> plenty of users like myself who do not contribute patches but would be
> happy to help in other areas of Pidgin.

You misunderstand the patch comment.  Had he not asserted that it was
inconceivable that such a feature would not exist, he would have
received no such response.

I trust that you really *can* tell how unreasonable his email was, and
have simply chosen not to touch upon that in this response.

Ethan

[1] The other possibility is poor mastery of the English language, but
    as I have seen no apologies for misunderstandings, I have to
    assume that is not the case.

-- 
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
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