[Pidgin] #1325: blist: add option to hide groups

[Pidgin]

#1325: blist: add option to hide groups
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 Reporter:  Sim-on       |        Owner:              
     Type:  enhancement  |       Status:  closed      
Milestone:               |    Component:  pidgin (gtk)
  Version:  2.0.1        |   Resolution:  wontfix     
 Keywords:               |  
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Comment(by jack5):

 the following use case shows why many people do need the ability to switch
 contact grouping off. if you have any idea, how the goals in the use case
 can be achieved without this functionality, tell me.

 lets say you have like 5 groups with about 25 contacts in each. you have
 contacts from all over the world, so mostly there are about 4 or 5
 contacts online in each group (that makes 20 all together), the rest is
 offline. now, of course you usually don't want to see all those offline
 contacts on top, so you order your contacts by offline/online status. only
 that wont help much, because now you really have to scroll a lot to see
 the online contacts in the lower groups. so you decide to disable groups,
 only you can't find an option in the menu. but you do find the option to
 hide offline groups, that does nearly the same for now: all your shiny
 green buddys on top and no disturbing gray offline contacts in between.
 right - until the moment you want to write a message to an offline buddy.
 you have to enable offline contacts, write him and disable them again.
 after a few times doing this you decide to search the menu for the
 possibility to disable groups again. after all pidgin is not your first
 instant messenger and you are familiar with this option from all the other
 messengers. after some time searching through the menus and preferences
 you decide to consult the internet. you are sure you must have overseen
 something, after all this is a helpful and quite common function. and
 because it is the only way you see how you can have both - offline
 contacts visible without spreading your online contacts all over the
 contact list - you invest quite some time looking for the missing
 function. only to find out, that developers decided not to implement it
 and even would reject implementations, not because of its difficulty or
 lack of time, no. because they, well don't want to.

 the workaround commonly posted in the internet, "move all your contacts in
 one group" does not help. after all, the group is an indicator for you to
 remember who the person behind the alias is. and of course you don't want
 to lose this information.

 any idea how to solve this problem?

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Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/1325#comment:29>
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