Shoutbox

Firstly, sorry for reviving an old thread - rather that than start a new one and be naughty

Anyway, I stumbled across this thread when searching the forums for different levels of transparency depending on a contact's status. (Original poster's 2nd suggestion). Although Patchou responded and seemed to suggest it's a no-go I would like to add why it would be useful.

Personally, I have my desktop contacts displayed in a line above the taskbar. They are set to always on top but have a 60% transparency level. This transparency applies whether they are on or offline. I have also set them to show constantly regardless of the contacts' status:



Therefore, with my settings, there isn't a great deal to distinguish between online or offline contacts. I know I could easily change the setting to have them not show when contacts are offline, but then occasionally my desktop would look messy, eg:

  This looks even less attractive when a window is open to reveal the gaps:

So if, as well as the current option, an option was added to enable the floaters to change from specified percentage X transparency to specified percentage Y transparency, depending on status, that would be great. This would resolve the aesthetics issue with my problem by not levig gaps yet allowing me to distinguish between on/ffline contacts.

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My next point is with regards to the original poster's 3rd suggestion. Having the desktop contacts flash on receiving a message has always been a good suggestion (and even apparently on Patchou's to-do list according to this thread), but now with the addition of tabbed chats it could help many people out.

I have read on these forums of late several people having difficulty getting to grips with or not liking the way the taskbar button doesn't immediately flash when an inactive contact sends a message. This has led to people not noticing messages for 10 minutes or so (....for example...). So having the floaters flash would help minimise this issue for some people.

That's it. Sorry for taking so long to explain!

EDIT: Don't flame me for posting already suggested ideas. The reason I 'bumped' them is due to the slightly different circumstances now with tabbed chats, and the fact that they were never actually dismissed by Patchou.