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Bug 595318 - Want different look/notifications for group chats vs. 1:1
Want different look/notifications for group chats vs. 1:1
Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE
Product: empathy
Classification: Core
Component: Chat themes
2.27.x
Other Linux
: Normal enhancement
: ---
Assigned To: empathy-maint
empathy-maint
Depends on: 585474
Blocks: 645921
 
 
Reported: 2009-09-15 22:12 UTC by David Laban
Modified: 2018-05-22 13:41 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---


Attachments
Pidgin default groupchat theme (131.17 KB, image/png)
2011-10-26 16:22 UTC, Laurent Pointecouteau
Details

Description David Laban 2009-09-15 22:12:21 UTC
Intro
======

Semantically, a message in a groupchat is different from that in a 1:1 chat. A groupchat message without highlighting is unlikely to be directed at you, but in a 1:1 chat it's always directed at you. Currently, the new message icon for groupchats is the same as that for 1:1 chats.

Proposal
===========

I suggest that we take a look at how konversation, irssi and friends do it. http://people.collabora.co.uk/~alsuren/tmp/konversation_highlight.png 
http://people.collabora.co.uk/~alsuren/tmp/konversation_highlight_config.png

The other thing is that in groupchats, most messages are 1 liners, with no more than 3 messages from the same person in a row, whereas in 1:1 chats, you often get multiline messages, and many messages from the same person. For this reason, it might be worth allowing different layout styles for different types of chat.

related bugs
=============

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=588812 suggests placing groupchats in a different window. I don't think I like this idea. You might as well use a different client for groupchats if you're going to have two windows open. 

(Yes: I still use konversation for irc because of a) this confusion and b) the messagebox from nickserv every time I connect.)
Comment 1 Guillaume Desmottes 2011-03-28 10:15:11 UTC
I agree, we should allow user to choose two chat themes: one for private chat and one for group chats.
Comment 2 Frederic Peters 2011-03-28 10:33:59 UTC
Or a single theme, that would ship two versions; just like a GTK+ theme can now ship a dark variant.
Comment 3 Guillaume Desmottes 2011-05-06 08:59:13 UTC
Let's first fix bug #585474 to avoid conflicts.
Comment 4 Laurent Pointecouteau 2011-06-06 13:14:09 UTC
Perhaps this bug could be related to https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=586386 and https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=649174 about Adium styles options for groupchats.
Comment 5 Laurent Pointecouteau 2011-06-07 12:34:54 UTC
Also, as evoked in https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=541632, maybe we could look at how Pidgin does it : bright colored nicknames and avatars/status icons in the sidebar.
Comment 6 Laurent Pointecouteau 2011-10-26 16:22:14 UTC
Created attachment 200040 [details]
Pidgin default groupchat theme

Colors are randomly attributed to each nickname.
Comment 7 Guillaume Desmottes 2011-10-27 12:08:45 UTC
We do implement this feature with themes supporting it (bug #541632); and yeah that's something our new default theme should support (bug #645920).
Comment 8 Guillaume Desmottes 2012-08-29 12:10:12 UTC
Not going to happen for 3.6.
Comment 9 GNOME Infrastructure Team 2018-05-22 13:41:40 UTC
-- GitLab Migration Automatic Message --

This bug has been migrated to GNOME's GitLab instance and has been closed from further activity.

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