[Pidgin] #2295: Add Account >> MSN >> "Screen name" should be "E-mail Address"

[Pidgin]

#2295: Add Account >> MSN >> "Screen name" should be "E-mail Address"
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  brettalton    |       Owner:  seanegan                                                                                    
      Type:  defect        |      Status:  assigned                                                                                    
  Priority:  minor         |   Milestone:  2.2.0                                                                                       
 Component:  pidgin (gtk)  |     Version:  2.0.2                                                                                       
Resolution:                |    Keywords:  msn messenger, "screen name", "e-mail address", "windows live messenger", passport, msimprpl
   Pending:  0             |  
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
Comment (by deryni):

 Your local alias is used everywhere you see the account in the pidgin
 interface. I'm not sure what you tried that you didn't see it but if you
 filled it in with your email address that would explain the difficutly,
 and yes we know 'local alias' is confusing but have been unable to really
 come up with a better term for it.

 Screen name has been acknowledged as being too AIM centric, but I have
 *never* seen anyone come in to #pidgin, or file a bug, or send an email,
 or post to the sf forum saying they couldn't figure out what to put in the
 'screen name' field for MSN, at worst they have wondered whether they
 needed just the 'user' part or the whole 'user at server' bit in there which
 is a somewhat reasonable (though also somewhat perplexing) confusion. A
 better, generic, term for screen name is being discussed.

 When you first looked at the Add Account dialog, where did you assume your
 account login id (email address) would go? Did you assume there wasn't a
 place for that? I'm trying to understand how you could have assumed
 'screen name' was anything not required since nowhere else is there even
 as remotely a clear entry area.

 The pidgin interface is not trying to be the MSN interface, it can't be,
 and it most certainly shouldn't be the MSN interface for MSN accounts, the
 Yahoo interface for Yahoo accounts, etc. People are by-and-large capable
 of reading and understanding things that are put in front of them and I
 find it hard to imagine that a normal MSN user when placed in front of the
 pidgin Add Account dialog would be unable to get it working virtually 100%
 of the time (and given the vanishingly small number of people I have seem
 comment on the confusion it caused them I think I'm not too far off from
 reality in this).

 The buddy icon selection in the Accounts dialog is *exactly* and
 *intentionally* not the same buddy icon selection as in the status
 selector, which is why above the icon in the accounts dialog is the
 helpful checkbox that says 'Use this buddy icon for this account' which is
 supposed to clue you in to the fact that if you select that you are
 picking an icon for that one account, whereas the status selector icon is
 the icon for *all* your accounts that don't have specific ones set. This
 duplication was *demanded* by virtually everyone when the global status
 icon was added.


 Set Friendly Name is a run-time account action, run-time actions belong
 inthe Accounts menu, one-time setup items do not belong there and belong
 in the Add Account window. Do you see the distinction? The location of Set
 Friendly Name is far from a good one, but we have been unable to come up
 with any better location despite years of trying, we have asked numerous
 people who had troubles finding it where they looked before giving up
 and/or where it would have seemed more natural and almost none of them had
 any useful suggestions (notably virtually none of them said the Add
 Accounts dialog). Conversely, moving the local alias to the Accounts menu
 would indicate that it is an action taken on the account as opposed to a
 purely local bit of meta-data associated with the account data in pidgin.

 Not to sound insulting but I think the fact that you figured it all out
 means it isn't nearly as confusing as you are claiming it is, further the
 fact that we haven't been flooded by hordes of people who are unable to
 figure it out indicates to me that perhaps your level of confusion is more
 unique to you than you think and/or that you are more susceptible to
 feelings of confusion than most. I am not trying to dismiss your
 statements just explain that with any more complicated and powerful system
 comes an increase in the available data and that a short acclimitization
 period is not an indication that things are too confusing but rather that
 they are correctly implemented because you were able to acclimitize to
 them, if in fact you had come here asking us to explain to you how the Add
 Account dialog worked or how the multiple buddy icons worked your points
 would have been much the stronger for that.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/2295#comment:12>
Pidgin <http://pidgin.im>
Pidgin