Hi, On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 3:37 PM, Nicolò Chieffo <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello everyone, I would like to start a discussion about the status > icons for chat programs > > Currently the icon naming spec includes those: > - user-away The icon used when a user on a chat network is away from > their keyboard and the chat program. > - user-idle The icon used when a user on a chat network has not > been > an active participant in any chats on the network, for an extended > period of time. > - user-offline The icon used when a user on a chat network is not available. > - user-online The icon used when a user on a chat network is available > to initiate a conversation with. > > Now I'm not discussing about the meaning of names, because the real > useful thing is to discuss about what is the impact of these icons to > the end user. > so I'm taking the point of view of a person who wants to start a chat > with a friend, and has to decide what to do: > - user-away: I can leave him a message, he will read it when he's back > - user-idle: I can leave him a message, he will read it when > he's back (the same of away, are you really sure we can't merge them?) > - user-offline: I won't leave him a message (unless offline > messages are supported by protocol) > - user-online: I can freely chat with him > In my opinion a status is currently missing: d-n-d. If the don't > disturb status will be added, I will be able to decide if I need to > talk to him immediately because the message I want to send him is very > important, or if I can wait to contact him when he is no more busy. > Currently there's no way to know if I'm disturbing a firend when I > start a conversation. > > Another useful icon for new protocols is user-invisible. this icon is > not useful for buddies but only for myself: I need to distinguish if > I'm offline or invisible with an icon (think of the user switch applet > with IM presence support) > > In the end I'd like to rename user-online to user-available, because > also other status are online, not only that one.
In GNOME I think we're going to use the following: user-offline - Used to indicate I'm not connected to the network/chat user-online user-available - I can and wish to chat user-idle - automatically set by the system user-away - manually set by the user user-invisible - I don't want to be seen user-busy - I'm doing stuff so you better have a good reason and I may not see it right away But seems that at the moment we're likely going to consider online and available as the same. In gnome-icon-theme development branch they look like: http://www.gnome.org/~mccann/gdm/userstatusses.png Thanks to Lapo Calamandrei for these. We want to use these in a UI that may look something like: http://www.gnome.org/~mccann/gdm/Screenshot-user-applet.png So, I think I'm agreeing with you. :) Thanks, Jon _______________________________________________ xdg mailing list [email protected] http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xdg
