Pidgin Controversy Triggers Fork 1104
paleshadows writes "Pidgin, the premier multi-protocol
instant messaging client, has been forked. This is the result of a heated, emotional, and
very interesting debate over a controversial new feature: As of
version 2.4, the ability to manually resize the text input area has
been removed; instead, it automatically resizes depending on how much
is typed. It turns out that this feature, along with the uncompromising
unwillingness of the developers to provide an option to turn it off,
annoys the bejesus of very many users.
One
comment made by a Professor that teaches "Collaboration in an Open
Source World" argued that 'It's easy to see why open source developers could develop dogmas. [...]
The most dangerous dogma is the one exhibited
here: the God feature. "One technological solution can meet
every possible user-desired variation of a feature." [...]
You [the developers] are ignoring the fan base with a dedication to your convictions
that is alarmingly evident to even the most unobservant of followers,
and as such, you are demonstrating that you no longer deserve to be in
the position of servicing the needs of your user base.'" Does anyone besides me find this utterly ridiculous?
Pigeons (Score:5, Funny)
The debate is now over... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:All Too Often (Score:5, Funny)
when i want an actual user's opinion, i'll beat it out of him
come on, every developer's thunk it at least once...
Re:Good God (Score:5, Funny)
I think we ought to formulate the Slashdot law, in a similar spirit to Godwin's law:
Slashdot Law: As a conversation on Slashdot grows longer, the probability of comparing someone to or bashing Microsoft approaches 1.
Re:Pigeons (Score:5, Funny)
Re:GET OFF MY LAUN! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:More options are always better! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Pigeons (Score:2, Funny)
Re:GET OFF MY LAUN! (Score:4, Funny)
Developers and User Interfaces don't tend to get along well; you need to go out on the street and grab a couple of people wearing matching outfits and get them to draw your UI on a napkin or something.
Re:Pigeons (Score:2, Funny)
That's because there's no +1 Awesome.
Re:Is there a technical reason not to allow both w (Score:5, Funny)
I have. Google Talk.
And I hate it. It drives me nuts, actually. I hate it so much I stopped using the "official" Google Talk client and switched to Pidgin.
Joke's on me.
Stupid Users! (Score:5, Funny)
If it wasn't for them, programming would be much easier.
Re:GET OFF MY LAUN! (Score:4, Funny)
Funpidgin motto (Score:1, Funny)
Re:GET OFF MY LAUN! (Score:3, Funny)
Anyone using such a construct in the future without my permission shall be sued. I named it, I own it.
Now we just need to fork Gnome... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:More options are always better! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:How to unfork: (Score:3, Funny)
(_) Allow resizing of chat input area
(_) Automaticaly control chat input window size
(_) Neither
(X) Both
Re:Pigeons (Score:5, Funny)
As one of my relatives is^Wwas a seagull I can explain this behaviour.
It's actually fairly simple: When seagulls rest they normally float on the water.
They don't have to be scared of "big boxy things" approaching because normally that
would be a ship and that would just gently push them out of the way - not even disturbing
their sleep.
Therefore seagulls have never had a need to develop defensive strategies
against human land vehicles - or anything else that's walking on wheels.
To make matters worse the brain of a seagull is really small
and their mental abilities are somehwat limited, akin to a 0.5MHZ CPU.
Thus, you are probably right that their small mind falsely classifies the blacktop as "water" at first.
"Big boxy thing approaching at 2MPH" is not so slow anymore when your single thread of execution
is blocked with sorting out the unfamilar sensory input: "Why is this water so hard?"
Re:How to unfork: (Score:2, Funny)
[X] call "Allow resizing of chat input area" Automatically control chat input window size
[X] Automatically control chat input window size
Re:Pigeons (Score:3, Funny)