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

[Pidgin]

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

 Replying to [comment:6 deryni]:
 > Replying to [comment:4 jeff]:
 > > MySpaceIM also does not use the term "screen name" anywhere. Like MSN,
 you login with your email address, but this is not the same as your
 username. You can pick your username to be anything you want, and it is
 how other people contact you (and you contact them--the buddy list
 displays usernames).
 >
 > How does this work exactly? When you want to find someone you look them
 up by username? Is the username something you can change on a whim or is
 it something you set at account creation time?
 >
 The username is used to identify buddies and for the myspace.com/username
 URL. You can lookup people by username, real name, email address (but this
 lookup is one-way--you can't lookup an arbitrary user's email address),
 numeric user id, or other information.

 Usernames cannot be changed once set, but they are not set on account
 creation. They're optional to setup, but most users set them up soon after
 registration or logging into MySpaceIM. If no username is set, the numeric
 user id is used in most places (I haven't tested this case too well in
 msimprpl; I'm not sure what is displayed to the user).

 > I think keeping this field name consistent is a really important thing
 to have. Even when the username has the same form as an email address it
 really isn't an email address and it really is a username.
 Maybe a protocol-specified description could be displayed below the
 username, explaining what to enter there if necessary. Though the email
 address used to login to MySpaceIM could be considered a "username" (in
 fact, the protocol field actually refers to it this way in the login2
 command, though it does nowhere else), this is not what it is normally
 called. http://profileedit.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=profile.names
 lets you change your "Username/IM name", which users could mistaken as
 what you should use to login.

 If we do decide to use a generic term, how about some variation of "login"
 (login name, login ID)? This has no ambiguous meaning, and could be
 further explained by the protocol plugin. For example, AIM would indicate
 your login name is your screen name, MySpaceIM your email address, ICQ
 your UIN (if that is how it works, I haven't used ICQ in years...), and so
 on. This would avoid the inconsistency of changing the name of the
 username field, while clarifying what exactly the user should enter there.

 (My main concern from an msimprpl perspective is ensuring that users know
 to enter their email address.)

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Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/2295#comment:7>
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