2 questions

[Etan Reisner]

On Thu, May 15, 2008 at 06:38:55PM -0400, John Moore 3rd wrote:
<snip irrelevant discussion about email clients>
> I take the term 'Avatar' to mean what Pidgin refers to as the 'Buddy
> Icon' displayed in the Buddy List of recipients.  I haven't used the
> Yahoo Messenger Client since converting to Pidgin from Psi.

Which is what I have been assuming as well, but have been unable to get
confirmation of this from her.

> In the Yahoo Messenger Client [Client = Program] One may use either a
> Yahoo provided Avatar or an image available on Your own HD. [HD = Hard
> Drive]  I like Pidgin because unlike Psi it doesn't rely upon Transport
> Agents to access other Messenger Programs /but/ it also _doesn't_ have
> access to their Avatar Library.  Pidgin will only display a chosen image
> selected from One's own HD library.

Ah, I was unaware that Yahoo provided default buddy icons that one could
select to use for themselves. Yes, that helps clarify what may have been
going on in this train wreck of an email thread.

> My suggestion to Kathryn would be to Open Yahoo Messenger and when the
> Avatar She desires is visible Right Click on it and choose 'Save Image
> As' from the Context Menu.  Once the Avatar/Image is on Her HD and _not_
> just on the Yahoo Server then She may store it anywhere on Her System
> and use the 'Modify Account' feature to 'Use this Buddy Icon' feature to
> browse to wherever She has chosen to store it.

Agreed, that is likely the best course of action.

> Pidgin is so feature rich that it is not the easiest IM/Chat Client for
> the neophyte to pick up [Install] and use straight out of the box.  I
> can appreciate Kathryn's exasperation and admire You, Etan, for Your
> willingness to assist Her.  Being an Application Developer I can also
> appreciate how confusing 'unconscious competence' can sometimes appear
> to the truly lost.

One of the main things I've been learning from this whole funpidgin
situation is that apparently many pidgin users are entirely unaware of
many of the things that pidgin is capable of. A quick perusal of the
funpidgin suggestions forum runs into a large number of things which are
already possible in pidgin (and in many cases have been possible for
ages). I have no idea how to correct or help this but would welcome all
suggestions.

A number of years ago there was work being done on a pidgin
manual/guide/introduction but the person working on it only had so much
time and pidgin was changing quickly enough that it was unfeasible to
finish.

Given that we now have a wiki it would be slightly more reasonable to
undertake a similar sort of idea only in a more 'modular' way and from a
more 'user' focused direction (that is having users document the things
they wanted pidgin to do and how they went about getting it to work,
etc.). Anyone who wants to start doing that is welcome to do so.

<snip>

Thank you John for being an 'impartial' third party keeping things moving
along and for your offer of more direct help.

	-Etan