Facebook in Pidgin

[John Bailey]

Haudy Kazemi wrote:
> I don't think the average user cares what the reasons may be for
> Facebook IM to be supported (or not) in standard installation of
> Pidgin.  All they care about it is whether "it works" or "is
> supported".  If the protocols they want to use or think they might use
> are not supported out-of-the-box by Pidgin, that person is likely to go
> onto the next multi-protocol IM application.

I can live with that.  Most of our vocal users are on Windows, and my opinion is
that Windows users will be better served by any application that doesn't use
GTK+.  Let them use another client.

> I think Facebook support is important, even if that is requires a
> screenscraping design.  Facebook is incredibly popular, and for users,
> it's chat feature somewhat parallels the ease of use of Gmail+Gtalk
> (i.e. it's available as soon as the user logs in).  It is easier to
> leave an IM program running 24/7 than to keep a browser window logged in
> and then watch that window for IMs, so for convenience reasons it is
> important to bring Facebook IMs under the unified Pidgin interface.

Facebook is not important.  It's a time-wasting black hole.  (Yes, I use
Facebook.)  If our reluctance, or in my case flat-out refusal, to support
Facebook's chat in a crappy screen-scraping design is unpopular, so be it.

> Other multiprotocol IM clients that support Facebook include:
> VoxOx: http://www.voxox.com/index.php ,
> http://www.facebook.com/pages/VoxOx/31722015698
> http://www.digsby.com/features.php
> http://www.adiumx.com/
> http://www.gabtastik.com/GabtastikWin.html
> http://blog.ceruleanstudios.com/?p=373  (Trillian Astra)
> http://blog.ebuddy.com/index.php/ebuddy-blog/facebook-chat-on-ebuddy/

Oh, so since other IM clients want to implement screen-scraping, we should do it
too?  I remember being taught in primary school that "other people do it" is
never a valid reason to do anything.  The context was, of course, different, but
the concept still applies.

> I think Casey's suggestion is a good compromise: make the plugin more
> stable and it's existence more visible.  If a novice user can get the
> plugin installed without manually copying files into folders, that's
> probably good enough.
> 
> -hk

If novice users want point-and-click to install plugins, then give the users an
NSIS installer for the plugin and be done with it.  (I don't know or care if it
has one presently.)

John

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