Where did my buddy go

[Billy Crook]

Say your friend has two AIM accounts, an XMPP, and an MSN.  This would
take up four spaces on your buddy list.  Also, when I you wanted to
chat with your friend, you would have to determine the best screen
name of his to send your message to.  You'd look at which ones are
signed on, which are away, idle, etc...  Pidgin lets you combine all
channels you have to a given person, into one contact.  When you want
to chat with that person, Pidgin keeps track of away times and states,
and automatically selects the most active channel you have with this
person.  The problem is all the more important to solve, when say, you
have 12 AIM screen names, two yahoo's, and 6 XMPPs.  Your friends
might also have multiple screen names from multiple protocols.  This
makes a total of 20 squared, or 400 possible paths between the two of
you.  Hopefully the problem is alleviated by not having every buddy
you know, on the buddy list of every screen name you control, but
surely you see how this can get out of control over time.

Not only does the 'merge buddies into contacts' feature keep my buddy
list down to 50 or so lines (as apposed to several hundred), but when
I want to speak with "Mark", I just look for "Mark", and I don't have
to think about how many screen names he has, or which networks they
are on, or if he will be available on the one screen name of his that
I chose.

The method of dragging a buddy out of a contact could probably be
improved.  As it is currently, you have to expand, than drag into the
header line of that group.

On Dec 17, 2007 8:55 AM, freecycle_tenbob at yahoo.co.uk
<freecycle_tenbob at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Could someone please help me understand this. I had the problem shown
> in the FAQ under 1.25 "Where did my buddy go? I just tried to change
> its group and it disappeared!"
>
> The answer given is "You inadvertently created a contact from two
> buddies". I can confirm that this is what happened. The two buddies
> are now combined into one.  I cannot understand what this is for or
> why it would be useful. I know what a buddy is, but I don't know what
> a "contact" is. This term is not defined in the FAQ.
>
> Anyway, the FAQ says I can undo this by expanding the contact and
> dragging the buddy out again. I cannot do this. After I expand,
> dragging is not enabled. The only way I can correct it is to delete
> the contact completely and start again from scratch.
>
> The whole thing seems very problematic. It is all too easy to make the
> mistake of creating a "contact" out of two buddies. An inexperienced
> user will become confused and think the buddy has disappeared. Even if
> the user expands the contact to see the buddy, it seems to be
> impossible to drag it out again.
>
> Could someone please help with a bit of clarification.
>
> Thanks, Bob
>
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