readd options

[Jacek Lukas Wotka]

hi stu,
thanks for the response.
first of all, i am sure you are able to see where a sentence starts. 
there's a full stop in front of it, or nothing in front of it.
i thus regard it as redundant.
however i don't think this should be the thing to discuss here.


Stu Tomlinson wrote:

> More seriously, removing preferences is a *good* thing for software
> usability, and user-friendliness, quite contrary to what you are
> claiming. Please see http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/DesignGuidelines -
> in particular the section on "Simpler is Better" and the referenced
> essay. 
> 
>> if you think that some of the option that were removed shouldn't be in 
>> the preferences window, then at least make it possible to change this 
>> manually in the config file.
> 
> Actually, hidden preferences are *worse* than extra, visible,
> preferences.
> 
>> especially i'm talking about:
>> - dim idle buddies (i don't care who's idle, .. and i don't care how 
>> long he is, as an extra option)
> 
> If you don't care for this, why does it bother you? If there is a real
> usability issue here I would love to hear it.
> 
>> - an option to control the icons for the status (i don't care who's away 
>> or busy), example: "only two icons: online or offline" vs. "the full 
>> spectrum" (which is the default for now).
> 
> We already do have a restricted set of icons, we do not provide separate
> distinct icons for every conceivable status where protocols provide more
> than the subset we have determined require easy identification. Some
> people actually have the opposite view to you. We have gone for a
> compromise that we believe provides the best usability.
> 
i quite harshly wrote "i don't care". by this i meant it is an 
information which i don't need or want to have in this place.
some people like to have the list clean, and don't like to be distracted 
by several different colours in the list. i don't claim that to be the 
mainstream opinion, of course.
at least dim idle buddies should be an option again. also the idle time 
doesn't need to be in the buddy list (it's in mouse-over anyway).
simpler is better, i agree with this. but i think there was some kind of 
exaggeration in the past "remove as much as possible".
in the first place the word simpler means "a simpler way or a less 
confusing way to do it" not "no way to do it".

as a side note:
maybe a bit of the problem was the invention of all these different (i 
think some are redundant) availabilty modes by icq or whoever did this 
first, which are since unquestioned. in older versions all icons where 
more uniform (in colour).

how about a "clean mode"/"minimalist" buddy list?
- small icons
- no buddy icons
- only online/offline distinction

>> - sending with ctrl+enter
> 
> This actually is possible, and is addressed in the FAQ:
> http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Pidgin#HowdoImakeEntermakeanewlineandCtrlEntersend
i know this. to me it's mostly a hack. it should be readded as an 
option. how could (or did) such option confuse the user anyway?

additionally i am curious if you ever made a poll which options are 
useful to the users and which are not.

i am a user. naturally this is only my point of view. generally every 
user has different needs. i used the word "enraged" becauce naively 
expressed this was what i felt: without asking an options were removed 
which i did use and found great because everybody could do as he pleased.

thanks so far.