[Pidgin] #414: You dont the See Which Protocol

[Pidgin]

#414: You dont the See Which Protocol
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  Reporter:  dancle        |       Owner:  lschiere
      Type:  defect        |      Status:  closed  
  Priority:  minor         |   Milestone:          
 Component:  pidgin (gtk)  |     Version:  2.0     
Resolution:  wontfix       |    Keywords:          
   Pending:  0             |  
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Comment (by Jawrakae):

 OK, let me first start off by saying that I am right up there in being a
 huge advocate for GAIM/Pidgin. I've converted and turned on most of the
 people in the office to using GAIM/Pidgin and loads of friends. I do love
 my GAIM.

 My first thoughts of installing Pidgin beta 7 were immediately drawn to
 the green blobs that have now replaced the protocol icons and I have to
 say, I was a bit taken back. Where did my beautiful protocol icons go?
 They were there before? There must be some sort of setting I overlooked to
 change it back. After examining every setting carefully, it appears I did
 not miss something. This was a fundamental display change.

 My thoughts then turned to why was this change made? I was quite
 befuddled. After doing some research and finding this thread and this
 article http://www.pidgin.im/~seanegan/cgi-bin/pyblosxom.cgi/identity.html
 I read them thoroughly to try and gain some insight as to how this change
 now benefits the GAIM community. I'll respond to the sections I feel are
 most relevant.

 ''"The other approach is the identity-oriented approach. This approach
 says: "I am one person who happens to have several IM accounts. I have one
 set of friends, who happen to use different services," assumes you don't
 care about those details, and abstracts them away."''

 First off, I agree with the first sentence. However, assuming for me what
 you think I care about I believe is a mistake - especially when you are
 removing something I once had. To me, this is the same as putting a new
 radio in my car, but not showing me what station is playing, where before
 I could see all the stations that I listen to with my old radio. Your
 argument is who cares what station you are listening to as long as the
 radio is playing. I respectfully disagree.

 ''"I, and many (probably most) of the Pidgin developers use Pidgin in this
 latter way. We're interested in ourself, and in our friends. We typically
 want to talk to Ethan, rather than start an XMPP conversation with
 elb at pidgin.im. Formally, Gaim (as probably all multi-protocol IM clients)
 has been inconsistant in which approach it took. In some places it was
 decidedly account based; you could only view logs with specific IM
 contacts, rather than with whole "people," (i.e. a collection of IM
 contacts owned by the same person). Other places were more identity-
 oriented: buddies from all your accounts were merged together into a
 single list."''

 Yes, I do want to talk to Ethan, but because I have multiple accounts for
 Ethan, sometimes I prefer to talk Ethan on one protocol vs. another.
 Example would be Sametime (business) instead of AIM (personal.) Now rather
 than have an instant visual queue I have to hover over for the details
 instead of being able to find the one I want right away. On the other
 hand, I would love to be able to view the logs by user regardless of the
 account they are on.

 ''"You, as an identity, have a single status, and a single buddy icon. And
 in the final push, revealed in tonight's beta release, your friends are
 represented primarily by their status, not what protocol they happen to
 use. When I look at my list right now, I see that I'm "Available" with a
 nifty Duck Hunt buddy icon, and that Mark is away with his Rugrats icon.
 No longer do I see that Mark happens to be using AIM, which is good
 because I never cared about that to begin with. Nor must I drop down the
 Accounts menu to see what all my accounts are, and what status they're in.
 I don't have to set each one's icon individually either. If I want to be
 Invisible, I just hit the status selector and choose Invisible."''

 While you may only need a single status, often times I am at my desk for
 lunch and don't want to be bothered by my Sametime contacts (they can
 leave a message), but I want my other contacts to be able to reach me.
 This is a benefit and feature of account based identity. Furthermore, if
 accounts didn't matter, we wouldn't need all these protocols to begin
 with.

 ''"The most common such criticism received from earlier betas is---as also
 seen in this review---that while setting your status on a single account
 used to be easy, it's now more difficult."''

 As much as I hate to agree with a negative review about Pidgin, in this
 case I concur.

 ''"Of course, when viewed in the light that you, as a Pidgin user, are a
 single person, it makes total sense that you would have only one status.
 If your MSN account is away cliff diving, it makes sense that your QQ
 account would be also. If you're just one person, why should you have to
 check your AIM list for one person and your IRC list for another? The
 issue that motivates these complaints is that people who prefer an
 accounts-oriented approach tend to use a multi-protocol IM client as if
 they are more than one person."''

 Same argument repeated here. I do not presume to be more than one person,
 however I may want to be available on one protocol and not on another.
 Again, if I am at lunch I don't want my colleagues pestering me, but if my
 friend wants to ask me to go out for drinks after work while I am having
 lunch, I want to be available. It only makes 'total sense' if I am some
 sort of drone and there is only an on and off switch.

 ''"The most common reason (possibly only reason) for I hear supporting the
 account-oriented approach is: I use AIM at school and Google Talk with
 parents, and I don't want my parents to know what I'm doing with my
 friends, or---for older people---I use Sametime at work, and Yahoo! with
 my friends and I don't want my boss knowing what I'm going with my
 friends. In both cases, the user isn't a single person, but two people: a
 straight-laced, wholesome, angel on one account and a drugged up, drunken,
 vice-crazed sinner on the other :). Even the above review claims this same
 reasoning for not liking the new identity-oriented status."''

 In my case, I just don't want to be bothered by some contacts at certain
 times and available to the rest. Plain and simple. I often need to
 separate business from personal.

 ''"Additionally, Sadrul's "mystatusbox" plugin can add status boxes for
 all your accounts, but generally, I think the best way to keep two
 identities separate is just to run Pidgin twice."''

 Run Pidgin twice? That is the best suggestion? Isn't that contradictory to
 exactly what Pidgin is supposed to be? If I wanted to run multiple clients
 I wouldn't use Pidgin in the first place.

 ''"When you know you need, for example, an AIM account to send a file to,
 you'll always want to find the person first, and then check the protocol.
 I can't imagine a situation where someone would want to find the protocol
 first, and then choose a person randomly from that to send a file to."''

 This is true, I always do look for the person first, however now you've
 just added an extra step for me before I find the right protocol. Aren't
 we supposed to be making things simpler, easier, with less steps to
 perform the same task?

 ''"So, while some people with dual identities might be turned off by some
 of the changes between 1.5.0 and 2.0.0, I'm betting that most people are
 indeed one person, and will appreciate how much easier Pidgin makes multi-
 protocol instant messaging."''

 How does this make my life easier again? I could go on further about this
 but frankly I need a break after this. I would appreciate it as well as
 many others judging by the popularity of this thread if you would
 reconsider the changes that were made.

 Lastly I would just like to say thanks to all of the developers who have
 invested a great deal of their time in to making Pidgin. Although I'm sure
 it is often thankless, rest assured that I speak for many others when I
 say thanks for your time and effort.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/414#comment:97>
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