Shoutbox

quote:

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Originally posted by nikosATH
whoever is talking directly with the developer into (hopefully) rushing out a WORKING Plus version sometime soon.

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Plus! is a working product. Just because it doesn't have a feature you want doesn't mean it's broken: all it means is that you're too impatient to wait for the feature to appear, or too lazy to do the renaming yourself. I did: it took me about 30-45 minutes.
Did I mind? Yes.
Did I do it anyway? Evidently.
Do I miss Custom Contact Names? Of course I do!
Do I bitch and moan that Plus! isn't a working product as a result? Certainly not! I'm just thankful that in the next release the Personalised Status shortcuts are coming back

As far as I'm concerned, WLM has a half-decent and useable Nickname feature, where Plus! tags can be used, and Custom Contact Names can wait. For instance, say everyone bugs the Windows Live team about the Nickname feature. They then improve it, adding colours, tags, all the stuff we're used to from Plus! 3.
Now, if Patchou had coded Custom Contact Names before this, it would have been a colossal waste of time, time better spent on features that WLM doesn't even have at all, and won't for the time being. From my point of view, I'd rather see the time spent on improving the encryption/decryption performance, optimising the use of space in toasts, and extensions to the scripting engine. All of which are higher priority than Custom Contact Names.

If the Nicknames are improved enough, then it won't be long before a Custom Names to Nicknames converter is added to Plus!, since it will require less effort overall. On the other hand, if the Nicknames feature stagnates, Custom Contact Names will make a comeback.

Now, if this post has shown nothing except that people's opinions differ, I will consider the time spent on this worthwhile. However, if you feel any negativity due to what I have said, I apologise. The medium of text is sadly devoid of emotion.

Hopefully I've helped you to understand the reasoning behind some of the choices made in developing Plus! Live

Apologies for length, width, and altitude gain.

Additioinal:

quote:

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Originally posted by nikosATH
because of the shortcomings of renaming in the original MSN

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I wouldn't call them 'shortcomings'. I mean, it's not the developers' fault that people use their display names for anything other than their name. Hence the appearence of the Nickname feature.
Plus! is, and has always been, designed to augment Messenger. It only adds, rarely replaces (logs being an exception), and basically aims to make Messenger a more complete experience.