[Pidgin] #562: case for old icons: Advantagous heuristics of differentiated protocol icons

[Pidgin]

#562: case for old icons: Advantagous heuristics of differentiated protocol icons
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  Ash           |       Owner:                
      Type:  defect        |      Status:  closed        
  Priority:  minor         |   Milestone:                
 Component:  pidgin (gtk)  |     Version:  2.0           
Resolution:  duplicate     |    Keywords:  icons protocol
   Pending:  0             |  
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
Comment (by deryni):

 To the best of my knowledge at this point all of the major protocols
 support offline messages. Furthermore, pidgin now includes an offline-
 message-to-buddy-pounce plugin which emulates offline messages on
 protocols for which pidgin doesn't support them. One could also create
 another plugin which searches for another buddy in the contact which
 supports offline messages or is online and send the message to them
 instead, that would work as well. Regardless, this fact does not require
 being able to see the protocol from a glance at the buddy list which is
 the 'feature' under discussion here.
 What information did you gain for immediate use by glancing at the buddy
 list?
 I have never claimed that there is no use to knowing what protocol a buddy
 is on, rather the claim has been that having the *buddy list* *status
 icon* contain the protocol was a poor place for that information as it
 confused things and didn't provide the information where it was needed.

 The fact that no one has come up with conrete examples of where the buddy
 list status icon containing the protocol icon has been of immediate
 correct use yet indicates that your assurance that they can be thought of
 is worth very little beyond your belief that they must exist.

 Were you the fellow in #pidgin-win32 who talked about being able to tell
 where your friends are by the protocol they use?
 Like I told that person, the fact that your buddies use different
 protocols in different locations makes them rather unique among the IM
 using populace. Most people do not differentiate location through the use
 of protocol, most people barely even use status messages to differentiate
 that. There is a reason that jabber was designed to allow for multiple
 simultaneous logins to one account and why AIM added that feature
 recently, it is *by far* the more common usage pattern. And like I told
 the person in #pidgin-win32 the fact that the protocol icons did what you
 wanted here was a coincidence and not a feature of the protocol icons.
 Aliases would work for you just as well, as would displaying of jabber
 resources, as would correctly set MSN friendly names all of which are
 better systems for this.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/562#comment:2>
Pidgin <http://pidgin.im>
Pidgin