[Pidgin] #2771: Multicolored nicks in chatrooms should be optional

[Pidgin]

#2771: Multicolored nicks in chatrooms should be optional
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  cdmarcus      |       Owner:        
      Type:  enhancement   |      Status:  closed
  Priority:  minor         |   Milestone:        
 Component:  pidgin (gtk)  |     Version:  2.1.1 
Resolution:  worksforme    |    Keywords:        
   Pending:  0             |  
---------------------------+------------------------------------------------
Comment (by cdmarcus):

 I disagree with your statement that colors don't do any harm. I find that
 when I'm in a chatroom larger than 4 people, I'm not going to be able to
 recognize people by their colors. Also, some colors are hard to read, or
 are the same color as the actual text in the chatroom messages. Just like
 the status icons that were removed in the transition from Gaim to Pidgin,
 they're an added complication that doesn't seem to have any merit. Any
 time I'm in a busy room like #ubuntu, the only thing I need to see at a
 glance for any message is whether the speaker is me, someone who's talking
 to me (prefixing my nick), or someone else. By adding colors to nicks that
 are arbitrarily assigned, you're not giving me more useful information,
 you're just adding information I don't need (like protocol icons). By
 taking out the colors for individual members of a chat and using the
 aspect of color to signify more important things (me, people who are
 talking to me, and others, just like the icons were changed to emphasize
 status rather than protocol), you're making the application simpler to use
 and more effective.

 I do think that colors do have some utility as a differentiator in small
 chats... however, the rooms I frequent are quite large, and the colors end
 up being distracting and intrusive, and not giving me information I need.
 I think that colors in chatrooms should be similar to status icons in the
 buddy list... optional. That way, people who like them can use them, and
 people who REALLY don't like them don't have to see them.

 I also noticed that 2.1.1 on Windows doesn't have the colors, but 2.2.0
 does. Every version on Linux does.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/2771#comment:2>
Pidgin <http://pidgin.im>
Pidgin