Re (2): Friends versus Buddies in the Buddy List.

[peasthope at shaw.ca]

From:	Ethan Blanton <elb at pidgin.im>
Date:	Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:51:42 -0500
> (I believe MSN used to (maybe still does?) use a "Friends" group by
> default, and AIM uses "Buddies" by default.)  They are structurally
> the same thing, they differ only in name.  

I'll speculate that the Debian maintainers set it up so that the 
freshly installed contact list would work for, or be familiar to, MSN 
users and to AIM users.  Apparently these are "groups", if that term 
is acceptable; and a user can create or delete a group at will.  
Nevertheless, two groups with the same members is rather peculiar 
to the novice.  Trust me, I'm a novice.

 > You may feel free to drag
> all of your buddies to whichever group name you prefer, at which point
> the other will disappear.

Yes; works just as you say.

> I assume your "Friends" and "Buddies" issue is related to simply
> having two groups in your buddy list, ...

Correct.

> ... probably on different services.

The only serivice I have is Google Talk.  My one contact appeared 
under both "Friends" and "Buddies".  I guess this phenomenon is 
Debian specific.

Thanks for the explanation,                   ... Peter E.




 

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