Another shot: LL please seporate the friends list from the communications window

Please change it back how it was SOON? Several have asked for this, and I'm one of them. I can gather about 10 people right now who would agree it was better the old way. I've voted on it already, but it seams this is how it's going to be released i guess... I'm a multitasker and i like to have my friends list in it's own window like every other chat interface in any game or messenger does it. I know it's been said that LL plan on changing it before release, but that time is drawing near as i write this. Will i have to use a 3rd party client just to keep 1 little thing how it was before it got messed up?

I one hundred percent agree. Popular opinion on this one is very strongly in one direction. I seriously hope LL will listen.

I have to multitask - full stop. That's how it is. Trying to use the Communicate window is driving me batty.

I know that sometimes it is necessary to get used to change for progress to occur, but I can't see any necessary reason for lumping everything under communication. It is VERY easy to make a mistake.

Please add me to the list .oh. please of people who want the friends list separate.

I've been making a lot of mistakes in the new setup, with mis-tells and IM's to the wrong people, because i keep having to switch tabs back to the friends list for the things i normally do. Snipping it off is only a temporary solution. Linden Lab messed it up, it should be them who fixes it.

Agree! This might be problem-sum when IM and public chat runs togther.........I dislike the current way it is...............

I kinda Agree... but I do enjoy the new Interface....
However I like the idea of it all lumped into One area so my Entire screen isn't covered with all these different windows.
Maybe it's because I am fairly new to SL and the old interface isn't so ingrained... I dunno.
Maybe there should be an option for this? If I mistell someone it's because I wasn't paying attention to which tab I had up (Be it general chat or an IM)

Anyways thats my opinion.... I'm only in favor of this if Linden Labs add an optio to leave it the way it is. Otherwise Progress is good.

New people to SL will not notice these changes that much, because they haven't become so familiar with the old style. Those of us who's been here for years however will find it difficult in one way or another. I just wish that if LL insisted on making changes like this that they at least have the courtesy to make it optional. The wya i would have done things, i would have kept the interface like it was, and just added the new voice feature to the existing layout. :/

Agreed. There's really no reason to be Throwing out the old Hud, seeing as it worked perfectly.

all the lindens need to do is add an extra "Call" window, and some option for the "voice -- near me" (we don't need a text -- near me... History is fine for that.)

But what about us that have been around? Well LLABs should atleast take in count those that have been around awhile. UI has not always been LLABs stronge point.

I like the new way. I went back to the standard client for a bit and hated the old way.

And I've been playing since 05.

Get over it. You will get used to it. Kinda sad that you are spending your time complaining about a small little thing when we have much bigger issues right now such as all this search crap.

It's true. I've been using the first look w/voice since it came out and now I can't stand the classic viewer. It takes awhile but you get used to it

You do NOT get used to it if you have a lot of friends. Having a friends list window with only 5 entries in it at once OR an IM window width that only allows three IMs at once is something I and a HUGE number of other people will NEVER get used to.

I've been using this for over TWO months now and going back top the old way is a BREATH OF FRESH AIR. I can see ALL my online friends at once with a quick button click and manage 8 IMS at once all wile taking up HALF the screen space of the new window set!

THis couls all be fixed if they would just allow the friends/groups list to be removable like the history window. Come on LL! You can satisfy BOTH sides by allowing that! WHat's the hold up?

on the other hand. friends seems to be broken most of the time anyways........
Shakeshead. double personialty i seeing now........

I'm not the type who just goes with the flow and accepts things. This change ruined some things for me. If LL can't change it back, or make it optional then i sure hope a 3rd party client becomes available to fix this sh1t.

True. Friends lists are supposed to be long and viewable, while chat windows are small and out of the way. Thats the way people have done it for years.

Lists are typically vertical, whereas text communication (on computers at least) is typically horizontal.

This is basic HCI stuff, really. I haven't bothered with the latest FL client, but in the one I tried, you could still open the regular friends list.

I have to say I like the new way too. Less open windows when I'm building.

I bothered to DL and load the newest Voice client yesterday, to check out the state of the Chatterbox UI. Couldn't do much else with TP and other critical SL features completely hosed...

The Chatterbox UI still defaults to twice as high as the old Chat History or IM windows did. That means by default, the Chatterbox UI still eats up twice as much screen area as before. At the size I normally run SL in on my system, that means *half my screen area* is eaten up by the Chatterbox. I am effectively blind to what is going on near me while using it.

To their credit, I can FINALLY tear the Chat History window off the Chatterbox and make it resize back fown to its former small size. But now I have to take an extra step to do that. And while I am doing that, I'm blind. It's like driving a car and having to fully open and close a big paper map in front of my face every time I want to listen to someone or talk to them.

IM windows have the same issue - and worse problems. Yes, after you use a couple different panes of the Chatterbox to open an IM with someone, you can tear off that IM conversation and downsize it. Close the Chatterbox and that IM window is no worse than the old one for size, though it took several screen-eating steps to get there. However, if you want to have more than one IM conversation going, you either have to tear off a seperate IM window for each one, OR you have to use the larger Chatterbox UI. I would imagien that whenever a new IM comes in, it will still be the huge Chatterbox that I must open before I can get to it...

In my present use, it is not at all uncommon for me to have an inch-high Chat History at the bottom of my screen, and an inch-high IM window at the top, and to have 5 to 7 tabbed IM conversations going on at the same time as the in-person text-chatting. I can't se how that will be possible with the new Voice Client, without either covering my whole screen with windows, and blinding myself, or getting a major hardware upgrade so I can run SL full-screen on a mega-huge cinema display.

So I back Yiffy 100%, and have voted on any JIRA issues that I could find, for the idea of returning to a seperate old-style IM window and chat history window. I can not see one single 'advantage' of lumping those two features in with the Friends list or the Voice Chat related functions.

I created this jira issue - https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-1550 specifically to capture the opinion of just going back to the status quo.

Interestingly enough there is even a Linden amongst the voters for it

Matthew

In the past , we have had new features come to SL that are broke or are complained about just 1 time and they hose it (windlight, the advanced shaders from 1.9, havok), yet i can't go 1 day without hearing complains how much this communication window p1sses people off and it's still here! ;/ Some people may like it, but the majority doesn't. I'm not sure how anyone can like a vertical aligned friends list that you have to scroll horizontal, being mixed with your chat windows. But we all have our own affinities i guess. :/

They seem pretty intent on forcing it through, despite all the feedback:

https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/sldev/2007-July/003743.htmlFor the people who do like the new communicate window, what resolution (and possibly UI size) are you using and do you still like it as much at a commonly used 1024x768?

One of the biggest reasons I hate the Chatterbox is that I normally run SL in a window, at 800 x 600, so I can have 2 to 4 sessions going at once, or so I can do something other than SL at the same time as doing SL. At 800 x 600, which is the largest default window size the SL client offers without customizing, the Chatterbox takes up 1/2 the window just to open it, and gets much worse if you dare to try text chat and multiple IM sessions concurrently.

Every person that I have spoken to who expressed a liking for the Chatterbox is someone who runs only a single instance of SL, full-screen on a huge display. For them, an extra 5% or so of their screen doesn't matter, I guess.

Maybe they need to specify that you can no longer run SL in anything less than a 1024 x 768 window, and be done with it?

Can't wait until I can afford to scrap my entire computer system and buy a new one, with a much better video card and a large screen...

Lets hope there will be 1 more update before they release it live, which puts things in a usable order once again. This is just terrible. I honestly don't think they will fix it.

This might be interesting.

https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/SLDev-Traffic_22#First_Look_Chatterbox


I've also posted to this list and to jira again, hopefully they have heard us, but everyone who cares about this please vote/comment on jira.

Well, they can make excuses about people fearing change all they like. It doesn't change the basic fact that forcing a vertical list into a horizontally biased interface element is just really bizarre.