David Woodhouse <[email protected]> wrote: >> The usage patterns for IRC are different from regular IM (passive >> presence in many "always on" channels vs. active participation in a >> smaller number of temporally specific conversations). You can't >> support both with the same UI (I know, I've tried to design such a >> thing). > > I'm not so sure they're really different. > > I have a passive presence on my corporate IM system, always indicating > my availability (available/busy/away/etc.). And it's very likely to be > 'always on' these days, since I can also receive voice calls from the > PSTN when I'm connected to it. > > And there are obviously the small number of temporally specific > conversations that you mention. > > But all that *also* describes my IRC usage. Yeah, it's always on, and it > can indicate my availability, and I'll have a number of short-lived > conversations. > > To me, there isn't a clear distinction between one and the other.
IRC: * You tend to join channels, not conversations. * Individuals tend to be on a high number of channels simultaneously. * Channels often have a high number of people in them. * Your interest in a channel tends remain the same over time. * Most people tend to read and not write. * Participants are often strangers. IM * Conversation based rather than channel based. * You know the people you talk to. * The number of conversations you are involved in at any one time tends to be fairly low. * Conversations tend to be temporally specific. * The number of participants in a conversation tends to be low. * All the participants in a conversation usually speak. The distinction seems pretty clear to me. > There's a broad *spectrum* of communication, and even 'group chat' can > end up including "meetings", with audio conferencing, desktop sharing > and all the other stuff that can bring. But then, so can 1:1 messaging. ... Well sure, the world is a messy place. That goes for pretty much anything; but you still have to make a call and decide what it is that you want to build. Saying "it's complicated, so we'll build all the complexity into a single tool" is not a recipe for success. Allan _______________________________________________ desktop-devel-list mailing list [email protected] https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/desktop-devel-list
