Facebook in Pidgin

[Evan Schoenberg]

On Nov 22, 2008, at 8:44 PM, John Bailey <rekkanoryo at rekkanoryo.org>  
wrote:
>
>>>
> Thus far I count (among Pidgin developers) Ethan, Stu, myself, and  
> Daniel
> opposed to including a Facebook plugin, and Mark as the only  
> supporter.  Of the
> developers who have responded thus far, I'd say it's pretty clear  
> what we as a
> collective want, and it's NOT a Facebook plugin.  I would, however,  
> like to see
> our other developers give a simple yes or no on including a Facebook  
> plugin for
> the sake of driving the point home.

If the Facebook prpl were incredibly stable (and I haven't used and so  
can't speak to it either way), I would side with including it;  
Facebook is indeed popular, the XMPP connectivity project seems to  
have stagnated (I, too, have access to it, and I haven't heard any  
progress updates in a long time), and the "given" of my if above -  
that it be stable - would minimize our cost of inclusion.

However, there are other costs and interests to consider. Including it  
isn't just a development cost; it's a support cost. Do we as the  
Pidgin community have enough interest in Facebook to offer its users  
support?

If Mark (or someone else) wants to take responsibility for ensuring  
it's stable enough for inclusion, I support that. While I love the  
thereotical stand against Yet Another Proprietary Protocol (and this  
hardly a protocol at all!), Pidgin's position doesn't seem to have  
budged Facebook thus far, and I don't see the status quo changing that.

As a side note, I developed Adium's facebook support precisely to be  
able to use Facebook IM as real IM - as many friends simply don't get  
on other live networks. That has no bearing on the Pidgin decision  
except to point out that my reason was not the protocol's popularity;  
it was personal interest, the theme around which we've revolved plenty  
in the past.

Cheers,
Evan



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