Version: Kopete 0.8.91 (CVS >= 20040626) (using KDE KDE 3.2.2) Installed from: RedHat RPMs Compiler: gcc version 3.3.3 20040412 (Red Hat Linux 3.3.3-7) OS: Linux It would be nice if there would be a checkbox in the "Properties of Meta Contact" dialog, in "Group Icon" group, where one could say "use the status-icon for the contact-icon". And then to have an option to hide the status-icon. This will have two benefits from my point of view: 1. Would make the contact list a bit cleaner (if the user wants to use it; i would:) 2. (and not least) Would provide the user with a much precise information about the status of the contact at a single glance. I am missing for example the possibility to see (at a glance, I know I can hover the mouse over the contact and see his status) if the user is in Invisible mode or not, and I couldn't find a way to define a _VISUAL_ element to give me this information. So this would not eliminate the unquestionable utility of the status-icon, but the contact-icon, which for me is just an annoyance (I just "edited"-not manually DOH:)- my whole contact list to use custom icons which reflect the status of the contact according to the protocol/account it belongs to and used licq icons, yahoo, etc icons). I have a quite large contact list and I need a correct _visual_ status of each contact. I hope I made myself understandable;)
On June 30, 2004 01:12 pm, Ciprian wrote: > I am missing for example the possibility to see (at a glance, I know I can > hover the mouse over the contact and see his status) if the user is in > Invisible mode or not, and I couldn't find a way to define a _VISUAL_ > element to give me this information. The status icon of the protocol should tell you if he is invisible or not? > I hope I made myself understandable;) As I understand it, your proposal only makes sense for metacontacts with only one contact. It would be useless for metacontacts with two or more contacts. Or did I miss something?
> The status icon of the protocol should tell you if he is invisible or not? It doesn't, for ICQ at least. I am looking right now at a tool-tip and says "Online|Invisible" but the status-icon is the one of plain Online :( And the status-icon (the important icon for me) is quite small, and when I open the contact list, visually my attention is grabbed by the metacontact icon. > As I understand it, your proposal only makes sense for metacontacts with only > one contact. It would be useless for metacontacts with two or more contacts. > > Or did I miss something? True! Sorry I didn't specified that. I can count on my fingers the metacontacts which use more then one contact on my list. I can realize it doesn't make much sense for metacontacts, but in that case the metacontact icon (I am thinking aloud;) could be reverted to the default metacontact icon. And achieve thus a distinction in your contact list between the single contact metacontacts and multiple contact metacontacts. Would that be an improvement?
>Would that be an improvement? No, that would be inconsistent.
On June 30, 2004 01:49 pm, Ciprian wrote: > It doesn't, for ICQ at least. I think this has already been addressed with the addition of Invisible as a status. Have you tried the CVS version? > I can count on my fingers the metacontacts which use more then one contact > on my list. And I can count on my fingers the contacts on my list that don't :P Nearly everyone on my list has more than one protocol. > And achieve thus a distinction in your > contact list between the single contact metacontacts and multiple contact > metacontacts. Would that be an improvement? That depends on your point of view. Kopete is designed around the idea that you should never really care how many protocols a person has, or what protocol you are suing to talk to them. It is designed around the idea that ideally, you could totally hide the protocols from the user altogether. Of course in reality this is not the case. However, IMO whenever possible we should always be trying to make our functionality behave the same no matter the number of contacts beneath.
> I think this has already been addressed with the addition of Invisible as a > status. Have you tried the CVS version? Well, I compiled Kopete yesterday from CVS, just hours before I posted this to whishlist, so I suppose I am running the latest CVS version (says here CVS >= 20040626). And I can say that I cannot see the Invisible status. I asked two friends with ICQ 2003a, one with 2003b, one with Licq 1.2.6, and when they are on Invisible I can see in the tool-tip, but not according to the status-icon which is the regular Online. And I have a list of couple of hundreds contacts :( (support stuff), so hovering over them is a bit over the hand. > And I can count on my fingers the contacts on my list that don't :P Nearly > everyone on my list has more than one protocol. I can see what you mean, with more and more multi-protocol IMs this is where is going, true. But that applies for the "more or less" technical people to install these. I have regular people (to be read as profane:) in my contact list and as I said most of them use one only. I also know a lot of people using IM and most of them still uses either ICQ, Yahoo or MSN, and more rarely but still AIM. But I agree multi-protocol IMs are gaining ground and are a better option (also why I went from Licq+Yahoo to Gaim - which I don't like because of the poorly designed visual feedback :(- and then to Kopete - which doesn't make me feel comfortable completely yet because of the mentioned need) > That depends on your point of view. Kopete is designed around the idea that > you should never really care how many protocols a person has, or what > protocol you are suing to talk to them. It is designed around the idea that > ideally, you could totally hide the protocols from the user altogether. > > Of course in reality this is not the case. However, IMO whenever possible we > should always be trying to make our functionality behave the same no matter > the number of contacts beneath. Yes, I see what you mean and totally agree with you. It's just that it hit me to communicate this idea/need I have, to get a detailed _visual_ feedback on user status. For example for me is very important if the user is in N/A or Away or Do Not Disturb. I can see Away easily indeed, that's perfect, but not N/A or Do Not Disturb, since in the metacontact icon these statuses are not available yet (?:) I know that N/A fades (in the CVS at least) the metacontact, but that visual feedback I think it's not _strong_ enough. What if the custom metacontact icon could be configured by the user with conditions/expressions related to the status of one or more contacts of the metacontact? I'm thinking like: IF contact1.dnd OR/AND contact2.busy OR/AND contact3.status3 THEN SET metacontact.icon.custom1 or IF contact1.customStatus THEN metacontact.icon.customIcon1 That would be pretty flexible and would help me manage better the visual feedback of my contactlist. Thanks a lot for the feedback:)
Well.. it still doesn't seem to work! I attached some screenshots. Kopete version is visible in the last is the default Kopete from 3.3.1 I tried to CVS the latest version but apparently I got an older version (after modifying the KDE_3_2 branch, as the info on the site said, to KDE_3_3_1, which didn't work, and then to KDE_3_3 which worked, but.. older version) I tried Browse CVS, doesn't work either. Well sorry guys, I imagine you put a lot of work into it but it just doesn't cut it :( And as much as I hate using 2 IMs to get what I need it seems I have no other choice :(
PS: Would it be _that_ difficult to put an eye icon next to the nickname as Licq does for example?
Created attachment 8042 [details] screenshot
Created attachment 8043 [details] screenshot
Created attachment 8044 [details] screenshot
Created attachment 9392 [details] Patch creating the requested behaviour This incomplete, and unconfigurable patch makes the contactlist appear as you describe
*** Bug 99897 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
My take is that you could, just as you are today showing the (possibly many) protocol icons and their status on the right side of the contact, you could put hem ont he left side of the contact and throw away that meta-contact-icon which belongs nowhere. if you specifically put several user accounts into one metacontact you take an active choice, I don't see any problem with having to chose to have only protocol icons displayed, or _only_ the metacontact-icon.