grey status msgs are inconsitent for screen name vs. alias

FredAkbar · Post by **FredAkbar** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 2:32 am

For most of the grey messages that show up in the message window (the ones that say the person signed on or off, or went away, etc.), it says the person's alias. But the "Could not send because ___ was unavailable." uses the screen name. Isn't this kind of inconsistent?

Michael W. disconnected (18:26:02)
18:26:07 fredhope: have you done the DBQ yet
Could not send because MmakyW is not available. (18:26:07)
Michael W. connected (18:28:20)

Post by **evands** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:48 am

The thinking there is that for the metaContact case, it notifies when the person comes online/offline (which may not correspond to a single name coming online... no notification is shown if one name of an already-online metacontact connects for example). However, for error messages, it's directly related to a particular screen name;it may be important to know which you messaged so you can switch to another. Is that illogical?

FredAkbar · Post by **FredAkbar** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 4:23 am

Ah, I didn't think of the meta-contact issue.

So what happens if you have a meta-contact buddy, and one of their sns is on, and you're talking to it, and then the other one signs on. Does the message view say anything then? Should it? Though admittedly this wouldn't normally happen if both of the person's sns were from the same network, since official clients only let you use one screen name at a time. So maybe this is a non-issue as well.

Post by **evands** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 5:10 am

It shouldn't say anything at all. If it does, I'd consider it a bug. My thought on metacontacts is that if you group a set of names into a metacontact, that should always be treated as a single person. So, for example, if you have a sound set to play with a certain person signs on, when any of the screen names signs on it will play... and if a second one signs on, it will not play, as that person is already online.

FredAkbar · Post by **FredAkbar** » Sat Jan 08, 2005 6:08 am

Okay, yeah I was just wondering. Personally I might like to know when specific screen names sign on and off, but I'd understand if the general consensus is otherwise...and nobody's forcing me to use meta-contacts