21 Nov 2006 Zaitcev   » (Master)

Gaim is insufferable

By far the worst thing in Gaim is how it persists in not providing users with any information about the sources of messages, even when it can to provide the information. The classic example is the most useless information window ever:

Not even the account through which the user is coming is mentioned.

But wait, it gets worse. The dialog above is summoned with a user action. But actually, you can spam anyone completely anonymously with these popups:

Just what were they thinking when they coded the thing?

I try to stay away from UI debates. I am not a UI expert, so what do I know. But this is just weak, people, totally weak.

{Update: I understand that the spam payload is delivered in the guise of a server message, which is why it gets its popup. Thus, the message is not associated with a specific originator, and the fault is with Gtalk for allowing Brazilians to abuse itself this way. The point, however, is that Gaim should not throw pop-ups for no good reason. Just create a "server message" tab if protocol is so weak.

I created a couple of RFEs and see how far it goes. Not that it would shame anonymous retards from making idiotic comments, but the point "you should file bugs" is made often by reasonable people as well.

1602801: Do not Pop Up, Use A Tab.
1602806: Create a Join Window Mode. }

{Update 2006/11/25: Regrettably, I have to abort the experiment with Kopete and stick with Gaim. I just managed to get it to work, but it was too much of an effort. Also, it pulls too many dependencies. I removed kdebase, kdenetwork, kdnssd-avahi, kdelibs, kon2-fonts, kcc, kon2, and qca-tls, but I do not know if I got them all. In the end I do not know it Kopete produces popups on server messages like Gaim. But it does have a separate window for chats, so it's not a groundbreaking improvement.}

Syndicated 2006-11-21 06:18:05 (Updated 2006-11-25 20:05:48) from Pete Zaitcev

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