[Adium-devl] Watching a first time Adium user for 5 minutes

[Colin Barrett]

On Jan 26, 2007, at 7:12 PM, Peter Hosey wrote:

> On Jan 26, 2007, at 17:28:41, Colin Barrett wrote:
>> Does iChat have it? What about MSN, what do they have? If they're  
>> different, perhaps those defaults should be set up on a heuristic,  
>> based on what accounts they add, and in what order.
>
> The problem comes from having mixed accounts. I *really* don't want  
> to have different accounts having different offline-hiding settings.

I think you mistake my point. Say protocol ABC's official client shows  
offline contacts by default. If they add *just* an ABC account at the  
wizard, we set the default value of the pref to match that.

If they have been using other clients (for other protocols,  
presumably) that don't show offline users, they've already been taught  
about the behavior, and will know that Adium isn't deleting their  
buddy list.

I think this is a pretty good stopgap for matching user expectation.  
Remember, this defaults trickery will only occur if all of their  
accounts are of a single service type -- f they add multiple services  
in the wizard, we just use the "default defaults." (todo: find better  
name).

> It should be left to user choice, and because of the confusion it  
> causes, we ought to present that choice in the wizard.
>
>> UI idea that popped into my head to consider: hover over a group  
>> and the offline contacts for it show up.
>
> Nobody'll hover over it.

Er? Nobody will ever hover over the groups? All contacts are in  
groups, so it seems like hovering will happen quite often. This is  
quite an unprecedented behavior -- I would want to prototype it (core  
animationnnn) and see how it feels.


> Another way might be a cell at the end of every group that says “42  
> contacts hidden (offline)”. OTOH, I don't particularly want that  
> for myself.
>
> Alternative to the wizard idea:
> ⁃ Show Offline Contacts
> ⁃ Count Offline Contacts ←Default
> ⁃ Hide Offline Contacts
>
> We could debate the wording.
>
>> Something like that would certainly make *my* life easier (I have a  
>> zillion people on my list).
>
> Maybe get the QS plug-in working, then hide the contact list and use  
> QS. ;)
>
>> Perhaps we should consider some buttons on the bottom (including a  
>> gear menu).
>
> Nobody uses Action buttons. They are one step up from contextual  
> menus.
>
> What if we put a toolbar along the right side of the contact list?  
> (Totally 1.2+.) It'd take advantage of having more vertical space  
> than horizontal on most contact lists.

I can't imagine what that would look like without giving me awful,  
awful flashbacks to Project Builder. *runs screaming*

>> Maybe accounts should be on the left, with a vertical separator  
>> between it and General.
>
> Sounds good.

Should I go ahead and change this on trunk?

-Colin