Alias option changes Google Contact

[David Woolley]

Gary Quiring wrote:
> I have contacts where the name is very long.  So I like to abbreviate 
> the name in Pidgin so it just shows a first name on occasion or a 
> nickname. But when I assign an alias in Pidgin it actually steps on the 
> first and last names in my Google Contacts.  I don't feel Pidgin should 
> be updating my contacts in the Google cloud. 
> 
I imagine the Pidgin policy is that alias names should not be local, if 
the protocol allows them to be stored on the server.  You would 
certainly get people complaining that they were not being updated on the 
server, if one didn't retain the current behaviour, even if you did also 
provide an alternative.

The other thing, and why I assumed a different interpretation, at first, 
is that this would only make sense if you accessed Google with another 
client, and you wanted the longer versions of the names to show on that 
client.  I find that an unusual requirement.

-- 
David Woolley
Emails are not formal business letters, whatever businesses may want.
RFC1855 says there should be an address here, but, in a world of spam,
that is no longer good advice, as archive address hiding may not work.