They're trying to make this interface far, far too simplified. Gaim used to be the definitive IM application for power users. They've dummied down the interface so much that it's actually more difficult to get to what I want.
In that vein...I want my old formatting toolbar back!! Is there a file I can modify to force this, or some other way to display the old formatting toolbar in IM windows? I used those buttons frequently, and the new drop-down menu is clumsy and frustrating - not to mention that, at the very least, the "reset formatting" button should have been kept on the toolbar - or kept as an option to put on the toolbar.
I like some of the 2.1.1 features - like being able to delete old, unsaved custom away messages from the list...but I'd really like to bring back the old formatting toolbar if it's at all possible.
Thanks in advance for any help provided.
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Actually, that's not what we are trying to do at all, but that's ok.
Why do you want the formatting toolbar back? What buttons on it did you use with such frequency that you need them at the top again?
You are aware that bold, underline, italic, larger/smaller font, and reset formatting have default bindings, right? (ctrl-b, ctrl-u, ctrl-i, ctrl-+, ctrl--, and ctrl-r) And that you can add a binding for Insert Link through the Conversation menu if you want it.
Also, almost the entire reason the Reset Formatting button existed was as a workaround for a bug which caused pasted formatting not to reset after the paste, a bug which we believe we have almost entirely fixed, and that therefore it shouldn't need to be hit very often. Are you still finding yourself needing to hit it all the time? If so when? If not why do you want it at the top?
P.S. Next time, skip the insults and accusations and just go with the request and reasons.
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It wasn't an accusation as much as it was frustration and annoyance.
I'm not particularly a fan of the new larger status icons, which is why I made my own (and posted them here several months ago). I'm not trying to offend anyone or accuse anyone; there are just certain things about Gaim 1.5 that I prefer over how Pidgin does things. Overall, I'm impressed with the application and will continue to use it (since the alternatives are utter crap).
Apologies for offending you or anyone else.
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Why was it changed in the first place? This seems to me like a solution looking for a problem - there were no issues with the toolbar. All that was accomplished was an extra click for the mouse user.
"What buttons on it did you use with such frequency that you need them at the top again?"
The smilies button and the bold button.
"You are aware that bold, underline, italic, larger/smaller font, and reset formatting have default bindings, right?"
I have hundreds applications, each with their own bindings. Why should memorizing keystrokes for GAIM take priority over memorizing keystrokes for other applications?
In addition, where are the tooltips informing me of the available bindings?
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Actually, there were issues with the toolbar, mostly that it forced the IM window to be a certain width because if it wasn't the end buttons fell off the side of the window and either weren't visible or were placed on top of other parts of the window.
A significant amount of work went in to not making it more clicks to get to almost all of the formatting toolbar buttons, for example you can click and drag to the button of your choice.
The key bindings for bold, underline, and italic are rather standardized among applications that support them, and I'm pretty sure the smaller/larger keys are too (but I'm less certain of that). So no, you don't need to memorize them just for pidgin.
Tooltips showing the bound keys is actually not a bad idea, the only potential issue is that we allow people to rebind the keys and I'm not sure if we can get the user-bound keys at runtime to make the tooltip, I would need to check.
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"Actually, there were issues with the toolbar, mostly that it forced the IM window to be a certain width because if it wasn't the end buttons fell off the side of the window and either weren't visible or were placed on top of other parts of the window. "
Hmm, I wonder how other apps resolved the issue . . .
"The key bindings for bold, underline, and italic are rather standardized among applications that support them, and I'm pretty sure the smaller/larger keys are too (but I'm less certain of that). So no, you don't need to memorize them just for pidgin."
Okay, SOME have standardized key bindings - others, such as smilies, don't.
"and I'm not sure if we can get the user-bound keys at runtime to make the tooltip"
Why not?
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Umm, I've tested the bug because I use a blue font, and copying some black text from say another user only resets my own color to black, and doesn't change it back to blue even after sending the message. Using 2.1.1, with the GTK+ that comes with the installer (2.10.13a I believe) on Windows XP SP2.
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I think the best way to make everyone happy would be to make a polls page on the main Pidgin web site that allows us all to vote for the gui design changes. This way we really do know what everyone want's and what the designers are assuming we want.
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My one and only gripe with this is that the smiley button was one I used often (heh heh, you're trying to get me to use it less aren't you? ;-) - it now is rather difficult to access.
I find myself wanting a button. It's simply more convenient, and for good reasons.
Remember Fitt's law? For a pointing device, the ease of successful access is proportional to the area of the hittable region. The time and energy and possible confusion is inversely proportional to that area.
A second UI rule is that mode-switching takes time and energy as well - eg: bringing up a new window, opening a menu. Any change in the interface requires thought in order to process that change and requisite next actions to take to get to the desired result.
In short, smaller more variable interfaces take more time and thought, larger more consistent/static ones take less time and thought. Less thought = better interface, in general.
So, back to new toolbar. Instead of a single button for each item, which was one action, and remained static and consistent and predictable, there are now two mouse actions ("clicks" are an incomplete concept) in order to get the same.
1. Click the menu - read drop-down choices. (Simple button - always the same. This is OK)
2. Click the selected drop down choice. (Fitts law applies - small area, many adjacent options = difficult to hit, easy to miss)
Or, as you've suggested, you've set it up so you can drag to the items. Wonderful. Let's look at that.
1. Click the menu and hold - read drop-down choices.
2. Drag to the selected choice and release (Fitts law still applies - no one said releasing the mouse on a certain item was any easier than clicking it. = Still difficult to hit, easy to skip and hit something else).
So, not much better.
What would be preferred is a recognition that some items are used more than others. User studies or surveys are required for this. My guess is that many people use the Insert>Smiley option more than any of the other insert options. Just place such often-used actions outside the menu, where a single click will activate them. Same with commonly used formatting, like bold and italic. If there is no room for them in the current buddy list, place them back into the menus.
Better yet, since you can't know which options which users will want to use most often, let them customize the toolbars. Every user is different and has different needs - this is something most good interfaces recognize and try to accommodate.
Finally the general concept is that You Are Not Your User. You can't know what people want, and you can't make decisions based on what you think is right. You have to study them, ask them, interview them, survey them, and find out what they need and what they expect. That's how UI design works, you ignore yourself and your infinite wisdom, and use it instead to learn as much as you can about the people using your software and design it so they don't have to think about it.
I have a degree in Computer Science with an emphasis in Human-Computer Interaction, if you need any more help feel free to ask. I'd be happy to assist you in any way you need.
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The smiley button is now a top level button of its own because so many people seem to use it so ridiculously often. (I personally would love for all graphical smileys to die in a fire, but that's one of my more unreasonable and unlikely wishes.)
"2. Click the selected drop down choice. (Fitts law applies - small area, many adjacent options = difficult to hit, easy to miss"
The current menu items are each a *larger* button than the equivalent toolbar items they replaced were. So I fail to see how you can attempt to use Fitts' law here to imply that the new buttons are worse than the old ones.
"1. Click the menu - read drop-down choices."
You said that twice, I'm assuming you are trying to imply that the reading time is an added burden of the new method, but I disagree. I do not believe that the scanning time now is in any significant way longer than the scanning time previously, the only change is the addition of the time needed to find and hit the top level buttons, but with those being larger than before and less numerous (I believe) that time should be rather small and ultimately negligible. Attempts to say that the scanning time of the previous toolbar didn't count or didn't exist are wishful thinking at best.
The dragging was added not to make the targets easier to hit but to require less clicking, which was a specific complaint people had. I haven't actually heard anyone really complain about the size of the buttons now, or then.
We *do* recognize that some items are used more than others, what we didn't do is attempt to come up with the ultimate usage pattern that fits people, because most people are different. We cut the buttons down to similar functions, tossed it to the wolves, and saw what stuck. As a result we have moved buttons around, made the top level buttons better, removed some useless buttons, and brought back the top level smiley button. So please, attempting to state that we aren't listening, aren't trying to help people, or aren't recognizing what people do and do not use that often is just insulting.
The fact that all you have are guesses as to what people do and do not use is *exactly* why we didn't start out trying to guess, as all we would have done is been likely to get it wrong and create more annoyance then the much simpler method of collapsing them all and seeing what happens. We really do think about these things when we make changes and we really do expect to get feedback from users and to need to change things as a result.
Customizable toolbars have been shown in studies to confuse virtually everyone and help virtually no one. This has come up on the mailing list a number of times. We aren't going to do it.
We are the users though, we make pidgin for ourselves, everyone else gets to use it because we are nice, we have no requirement to make things for other people simply because they want it. We try to make pidgin the best IM client it can be for everyone while still making it something we like, want to use, and want to continue working on. We don't have the time, the money, or (for the most part) the inclination to run studies or surveys or anything like that. You know how we run studies? We make a release and see what people like and don't like. Then we make whatever changes we think are necessary. You aren't the first person not to realize that at no point is pidgin being touted as 'stable' or 'finished' and that every release is just another test in the long line of tests that have gotten us to where we are today. Keep *that* in mind the next time we change something and you think we shouldn't have.
You are always welcome to continue to suggest improvements to our UI, you are welcome to write code to fix things, you are welcome to run studies on our behalf (though running that by us first is probably a good idea), and you are free to do just about anything else you want. The one thing you can't (well shouldn't) do is to assume that we aren't paying attention or aren't listening, or aren't trying and that we aren't going to be bothered when people attack us without having spent the time to realize that we *have* spent time thinking about this stuff. So please, don't do that. (This is directed at everyone and not just you, you have handled this mostly ok, at least with regards to this post specifically.)
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Thank you for your very reasonable and well thought-out reply, though I'm sorry it must have taken a long time both to read my post and reply. I don't want to waste any more of your time, so I'll make this short.
I have a better understanding of where you guys are coming from and your philosophies now, that you're building it for yourselves primarily and don't have time to listen to everybody, and you're doing a great job. I am an open-source developer as well (Zenphoto.org) and I'm doing a horrible job ;-), so I understand how hard it is to make everyone happy. So I just want to say thanks :)
That's all, if I have time I'll give more suggestions in a helpful and more complete/specific (er, not general and useless) manner. So far so good though - I've discovered the "Ungroup items" right-click option and I'm glad you've provided it.
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It was not my intention to indicate that we don't care or don't have time to listen to people, but rather that we are not required to do so by our involvement with the project. We *do* listen to people, if we didn't I wouldn't have spent my time answering you here (and the other people in other threads in this forum). My real point was that the assumptions that when we change things we haven't thought it through as much as we reasonably could and that we are unwilling to be convinced we were wrong, or that simply because we disagree with a presented reason that we are therefore unreasonable ogres who hate users and want to make them angry are just wrong and entirely unhelpful to both the people holding those beliefs, the people they believe think like them, their chances of our listening, and ultimately the project as a whole (if they really think they are right and we made a mistake). That was all. I enjoy knowing that the software I work on is used by people because they find it helpful and useful and I like knowing that they can come find me and ask me to make changes that they think they want/need. I just want them to respect my rights to say no and to hold my own opinions about this stuff (especially since in many cases I have likely thought about it much more than they have).
Ungroup Items may or may not stick around long, it was added as a quick patch for the complaints about the new toolbar format but I think the idea is that we really can find a compromise toolbar that Just Works for everyone.
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It's exactly the "in many cases I have likely thought about it much more than they have" that is the problem, but that's good that you think you know better than your users. You might.
And I admire your desire to have one interface that works for everybody, but that is often not possible. You seem to think it's some kind of hack to have an option, but a configurable interface is actually not a bad thing.
"Ungroup Items may or may not stick around long, it was added as a quick patch for the complaints about the new toolbar format but I think the idea is that we really can find a compromise toolbar that Just Works for everyone."
Your users are too diverse a set for this ideal to work. Ideals are nice and all, but the reality is better - in that you have a wide set of users with a wide set of desires, and that perhaps options are a good thing. Just don't think they're inherently bad for some reason and make an inferior interface, because they're not. Options allow simplicity while also allowing learned complexity, which is powerful. Nothing bad about that.
Of course, as in all design, there is a balance. It's not black and white. Never is.
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I also want to say that I do respect your design decisions, and I understand that you think them through thoroughly -- thanks for your hard work in trying to make Pidgin great, because it really is on the whole. Very nice work from the whole team. I just like to pick at the details :)
I also understand what it's like to feel like you're being attacked for the things you do. I get that all the time in my project. All the time. I find the best, most mature, most respectful, and most productive way to deal with that is to be completely and overtly nice to them. It's really funny, actually, to have someone walk in ready for a fight and to scare them away with politeness. It's also very mature. And in most cases, the combatant turns around and starts being nice back, and you both get something great out of it. They get the satisfaction of being heard and needs being addressed, and you get 1) good press and reputation, 2) a happy "customer", 3) really great tips (because these people usually do have good ideas), and 4) YOU WIN the fight, by making yourself bigger than they. Seriously. This works, and it makes you and the project look awesome. Suddenly no one's fighting you anymore and you can actually get things done.
Of course, you're not required to take it from anybody. You'd just be really smart if you did.
It's this understanding that I've been trying to get across. I just think it's a better way of dealing with users.
Anyway, thanks for doing a great job. I love your software and I'll keep using it no matter what you do to it. :-)
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They're trying to make this interface far, far too simplified. Gaim used to be the definitive IM application for power users. They've dummied down the interface so much that it's actually more difficult to get to what I want.
In that vein...I want my old formatting toolbar back!! Is there a file I can modify to force this, or some other way to display the old formatting toolbar in IM windows? I used those buttons frequently, and the new drop-down menu is clumsy and frustrating - not to mention that, at the very least, the "reset formatting" button should have been kept on the toolbar - or kept as an option to put on the toolbar.
I like some of the 2.1.1 features - like being able to delete old, unsaved custom away messages from the list...but I'd really like to bring back the old formatting toolbar if it's at all possible.
Thanks in advance for any help provided.
Actually, that's not what we are trying to do at all, but that's ok.
Why do you want the formatting toolbar back? What buttons on it did you use with such frequency that you need them at the top again?
You are aware that bold, underline, italic, larger/smaller font, and reset formatting have default bindings, right? (ctrl-b, ctrl-u, ctrl-i, ctrl-+, ctrl--, and ctrl-r) And that you can add a binding for Insert Link through the Conversation menu if you want it.
Also, almost the entire reason the Reset Formatting button existed was as a workaround for a bug which caused pasted formatting not to reset after the paste, a bug which we believe we have almost entirely fixed, and that therefore it shouldn't need to be hit very often. Are you still finding yourself needing to hit it all the time? If so when? If not why do you want it at the top?
P.S. Next time, skip the insults and accusations and just go with the request and reasons.
It wasn't an accusation as much as it was frustration and annoyance.
I'm not particularly a fan of the new larger status icons, which is why I made my own (and posted them here several months ago). I'm not trying to offend anyone or accuse anyone; there are just certain things about Gaim 1.5 that I prefer over how Pidgin does things. Overall, I'm impressed with the application and will continue to use it (since the alternatives are utter crap).
Apologies for offending you or anyone else.
"Why do you want the formatting toolbar back?"
Why was it changed in the first place? This seems to me like a solution looking for a problem - there were no issues with the toolbar. All that was accomplished was an extra click for the mouse user.
"What buttons on it did you use with such frequency that you need them at the top again?"
The smilies button and the bold button.
"You are aware that bold, underline, italic, larger/smaller font, and reset formatting have default bindings, right?"
I have hundreds applications, each with their own bindings. Why should memorizing keystrokes for GAIM take priority over memorizing keystrokes for other applications?
In addition, where are the tooltips informing me of the available bindings?
Actually, there were issues with the toolbar, mostly that it forced the IM window to be a certain width because if it wasn't the end buttons fell off the side of the window and either weren't visible or were placed on top of other parts of the window.
A significant amount of work went in to not making it more clicks to get to almost all of the formatting toolbar buttons, for example you can click and drag to the button of your choice.
The key bindings for bold, underline, and italic are rather standardized among applications that support them, and I'm pretty sure the smaller/larger keys are too (but I'm less certain of that). So no, you don't need to memorize them just for pidgin.
Tooltips showing the bound keys is actually not a bad idea, the only potential issue is that we allow people to rebind the keys and I'm not sure if we can get the user-bound keys at runtime to make the tooltip, I would need to check.
"Actually, there were issues with the toolbar, mostly that it forced the IM window to be a certain width because if it wasn't the end buttons fell off the side of the window and either weren't visible or were placed on top of other parts of the window. "
Hmm, I wonder how other apps resolved the issue . . .
"The key bindings for bold, underline, and italic are rather standardized among applications that support them, and I'm pretty sure the smaller/larger keys are too (but I'm less certain of that). So no, you don't need to memorize them just for pidgin."
Okay, SOME have standardized key bindings - others, such as smilies, don't.
"and I'm not sure if we can get the user-bound keys at runtime to make the tooltip"
Why not?
Hmm, I was thinking a bit how to improve the new system you created:
http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/870/path8068wk9.png
This maintains the new system (two buttons that expand), but simplifies it.
Umm, I've tested the bug because I use a blue font, and copying some black text from say another user only resets my own color to black, and doesn't change it back to blue even after sending the message. Using 2.1.1, with the GTK+ that comes with the installer (2.10.13a I believe) on Windows XP SP2.
I think the best way to make everyone happy would be to make a polls page on the main Pidgin web site that allows us all to vote for the gui design changes. This way we really do know what everyone want's and what the designers are assuming we want.
My one and only gripe with this is that the smiley button was one I used often (heh heh, you're trying to get me to use it less aren't you? ;-) - it now is rather difficult to access.
I find myself wanting a button. It's simply more convenient, and for good reasons.
Remember Fitt's law? For a pointing device, the ease of successful access is proportional to the area of the hittable region. The time and energy and possible confusion is inversely proportional to that area.
A second UI rule is that mode-switching takes time and energy as well - eg: bringing up a new window, opening a menu. Any change in the interface requires thought in order to process that change and requisite next actions to take to get to the desired result.
In short, smaller more variable interfaces take more time and thought, larger more consistent/static ones take less time and thought. Less thought = better interface, in general.
So, back to new toolbar. Instead of a single button for each item, which was one action, and remained static and consistent and predictable, there are now two mouse actions ("clicks" are an incomplete concept) in order to get the same.
1. Click the menu - read drop-down choices. (Simple button - always the same. This is OK)
2. Click the selected drop down choice. (Fitts law applies - small area, many adjacent options = difficult to hit, easy to miss)
Or, as you've suggested, you've set it up so you can drag to the items. Wonderful. Let's look at that.
1. Click the menu and hold - read drop-down choices.
2. Drag to the selected choice and release (Fitts law still applies - no one said releasing the mouse on a certain item was any easier than clicking it. = Still difficult to hit, easy to skip and hit something else).
So, not much better.
What would be preferred is a recognition that some items are used more than others. User studies or surveys are required for this. My guess is that many people use the Insert>Smiley option more than any of the other insert options. Just place such often-used actions outside the menu, where a single click will activate them. Same with commonly used formatting, like bold and italic. If there is no room for them in the current buddy list, place them back into the menus.
Better yet, since you can't know which options which users will want to use most often, let them customize the toolbars. Every user is different and has different needs - this is something most good interfaces recognize and try to accommodate.
Finally the general concept is that You Are Not Your User. You can't know what people want, and you can't make decisions based on what you think is right. You have to study them, ask them, interview them, survey them, and find out what they need and what they expect. That's how UI design works, you ignore yourself and your infinite wisdom, and use it instead to learn as much as you can about the people using your software and design it so they don't have to think about it.
I have a degree in Computer Science with an emphasis in Human-Computer Interaction, if you need any more help feel free to ask. I'd be happy to assist you in any way you need.
I see in a Trac ticket that Sean has already addressed this by making the Smiley button outside the menus as a special case.
I see that as missing the point, but only slightly. This project's general attitude toward UI design could still use improvement.
What attitude? The try things we think might work and then fix them when they don't attitude?
Responding to key points:
The smiley button is now a top level button of its own because so many people seem to use it so ridiculously often. (I personally would love for all graphical smileys to die in a fire, but that's one of my more unreasonable and unlikely wishes.)
"2. Click the selected drop down choice. (Fitts law applies - small area, many adjacent options = difficult to hit, easy to miss"
The current menu items are each a *larger* button than the equivalent toolbar items they replaced were. So I fail to see how you can attempt to use Fitts' law here to imply that the new buttons are worse than the old ones.
"1. Click the menu - read drop-down choices."
You said that twice, I'm assuming you are trying to imply that the reading time is an added burden of the new method, but I disagree. I do not believe that the scanning time now is in any significant way longer than the scanning time previously, the only change is the addition of the time needed to find and hit the top level buttons, but with those being larger than before and less numerous (I believe) that time should be rather small and ultimately negligible. Attempts to say that the scanning time of the previous toolbar didn't count or didn't exist are wishful thinking at best.
The dragging was added not to make the targets easier to hit but to require less clicking, which was a specific complaint people had. I haven't actually heard anyone really complain about the size of the buttons now, or then.
We *do* recognize that some items are used more than others, what we didn't do is attempt to come up with the ultimate usage pattern that fits people, because most people are different. We cut the buttons down to similar functions, tossed it to the wolves, and saw what stuck. As a result we have moved buttons around, made the top level buttons better, removed some useless buttons, and brought back the top level smiley button. So please, attempting to state that we aren't listening, aren't trying to help people, or aren't recognizing what people do and do not use that often is just insulting.
The fact that all you have are guesses as to what people do and do not use is *exactly* why we didn't start out trying to guess, as all we would have done is been likely to get it wrong and create more annoyance then the much simpler method of collapsing them all and seeing what happens. We really do think about these things when we make changes and we really do expect to get feedback from users and to need to change things as a result.
Customizable toolbars have been shown in studies to confuse virtually everyone and help virtually no one. This has come up on the mailing list a number of times. We aren't going to do it.
We are the users though, we make pidgin for ourselves, everyone else gets to use it because we are nice, we have no requirement to make things for other people simply because they want it. We try to make pidgin the best IM client it can be for everyone while still making it something we like, want to use, and want to continue working on. We don't have the time, the money, or (for the most part) the inclination to run studies or surveys or anything like that. You know how we run studies? We make a release and see what people like and don't like. Then we make whatever changes we think are necessary. You aren't the first person not to realize that at no point is pidgin being touted as 'stable' or 'finished' and that every release is just another test in the long line of tests that have gotten us to where we are today. Keep *that* in mind the next time we change something and you think we shouldn't have.
You are always welcome to continue to suggest improvements to our UI, you are welcome to write code to fix things, you are welcome to run studies on our behalf (though running that by us first is probably a good idea), and you are free to do just about anything else you want. The one thing you can't (well shouldn't) do is to assume that we aren't paying attention or aren't listening, or aren't trying and that we aren't going to be bothered when people attack us without having spent the time to realize that we *have* spent time thinking about this stuff. So please, don't do that. (This is directed at everyone and not just you, you have handled this mostly ok, at least with regards to this post specifically.)
Thank you for your very reasonable and well thought-out reply, though I'm sorry it must have taken a long time both to read my post and reply. I don't want to waste any more of your time, so I'll make this short.
I have a better understanding of where you guys are coming from and your philosophies now, that you're building it for yourselves primarily and don't have time to listen to everybody, and you're doing a great job. I am an open-source developer as well (Zenphoto.org) and I'm doing a horrible job ;-), so I understand how hard it is to make everyone happy. So I just want to say thanks :)
That's all, if I have time I'll give more suggestions in a helpful and more complete/specific (er, not general and useless) manner. So far so good though - I've discovered the "Ungroup items" right-click option and I'm glad you've provided it.
It was not my intention to indicate that we don't care or don't have time to listen to people, but rather that we are not required to do so by our involvement with the project. We *do* listen to people, if we didn't I wouldn't have spent my time answering you here (and the other people in other threads in this forum). My real point was that the assumptions that when we change things we haven't thought it through as much as we reasonably could and that we are unwilling to be convinced we were wrong, or that simply because we disagree with a presented reason that we are therefore unreasonable ogres who hate users and want to make them angry are just wrong and entirely unhelpful to both the people holding those beliefs, the people they believe think like them, their chances of our listening, and ultimately the project as a whole (if they really think they are right and we made a mistake). That was all. I enjoy knowing that the software I work on is used by people because they find it helpful and useful and I like knowing that they can come find me and ask me to make changes that they think they want/need. I just want them to respect my rights to say no and to hold my own opinions about this stuff (especially since in many cases I have likely thought about it much more than they have).
Ungroup Items may or may not stick around long, it was added as a quick patch for the complaints about the new toolbar format but I think the idea is that we really can find a compromise toolbar that Just Works for everyone.
It's exactly the "in many cases I have likely thought about it much more than they have" that is the problem, but that's good that you think you know better than your users. You might.
And I admire your desire to have one interface that works for everybody, but that is often not possible. You seem to think it's some kind of hack to have an option, but a configurable interface is actually not a bad thing.
"Ungroup Items may or may not stick around long, it was added as a quick patch for the complaints about the new toolbar format but I think the idea is that we really can find a compromise toolbar that Just Works for everyone."
Your users are too diverse a set for this ideal to work. Ideals are nice and all, but the reality is better - in that you have a wide set of users with a wide set of desires, and that perhaps options are a good thing. Just don't think they're inherently bad for some reason and make an inferior interface, because they're not. Options allow simplicity while also allowing learned complexity, which is powerful. Nothing bad about that.
Of course, as in all design, there is a balance. It's not black and white. Never is.
I also want to say that I do respect your design decisions, and I understand that you think them through thoroughly -- thanks for your hard work in trying to make Pidgin great, because it really is on the whole. Very nice work from the whole team. I just like to pick at the details :)
I also understand what it's like to feel like you're being attacked for the things you do. I get that all the time in my project. All the time. I find the best, most mature, most respectful, and most productive way to deal with that is to be completely and overtly nice to them. It's really funny, actually, to have someone walk in ready for a fight and to scare them away with politeness. It's also very mature. And in most cases, the combatant turns around and starts being nice back, and you both get something great out of it. They get the satisfaction of being heard and needs being addressed, and you get 1) good press and reputation, 2) a happy "customer", 3) really great tips (because these people usually do have good ideas), and 4) YOU WIN the fight, by making yourself bigger than they. Seriously. This works, and it makes you and the project look awesome. Suddenly no one's fighting you anymore and you can actually get things done.
Of course, you're not required to take it from anybody. You'd just be really smart if you did.
It's this understanding that I've been trying to get across. I just think it's a better way of dealing with users.
Anyway, thanks for doing a great job. I love your software and I'll keep using it no matter what you do to it. :-)