Re: [Gaim-devel] Re: [Gaim-commits] CVS: gaim/src gtkblist.c,1.254,1.255 gtkblist.h,1.32,1.33

[Sean E. <sea...@gm...>]

On 6/21/05, Luke Schierer <lsc...@us...> wrote:
> Right now we have a significant body of users, most but not all of
> whom primarily use MSN, that totally do not understand what an alias
> is, and what it is not.\

The larger confusion, of course, is account aliases, but I submit that
MSN users don't get aliases.

> However, that particular dialog is not like the various
> other dialogs that the request api sometimes generates, that pop up
> unexpectedly.=20

The main usability benefit here is from direct manipulation as
described in the HIG, not reducing dialogs, although I think that's a
welcome side-benefit.

> I think that having a dialog as opposed to inline
> editing gives us a place to try to state what an alias is,

Currently, the text reads "Enter an alias for BuddyName" which does
nothing to that affect.

> whereas I
> fully expect that with the inline editing, we will have users
> thinking they are changing the actual screenname, or that their
> change will be reset by a server-change (the way ICQ changes for
> example often are).

The question is whether this is outweighed by the benefits inline alias edi=
ting.

Either way, I presume the UI for renaming groups is perfectly acceptable.