features for an IM Client

[PsychotomusSim]

I am building a instant messenger and need feedback.


Heres some screen shots of the interface:
http://www.po2upload.com/view_file.php?file=2sim-chat-buddy-list.PNG
http://www.po2upload.com/view_file.php?file=2sim-chat-login.PNG
http://www.po2upload.com/view_file.php?file=2sim-chat-password-retrieve.PNG
http://www.po2upload.com/view_file.php?file=2sim-chat-register.PNG



heres some other ideas I have gathered so far. Once complete, people will be able to walk around in a 2d world and chat with strangers (sounds fun).


I hate aim for a couple of miscellaneous reasons

1) 16 character limit on names (maybe a 24 or 26 limit would be better, not the ridiculous, seemingly-endless limit on MSN)
2) They endorse two spyware companies, WeatherBug and WildTangent
3) Damned audio ads that won't stop playing no matter how many times I mute the ad.
4) AIM Today window is a pain in the *** (especially if it doesn't stop showing up when you click "DON'T SHOW AIM TODAY AT START")
5) AOL is pure suckage anyhow. AIM somehow managed to stave off a good deal of its sucktitude, but now its catching up.
6) Not able to use symbols in names such as !@#$%^&*()_+=-~`;':",.<>/?
7) Not able to use letters from other languages (refer to alt code)
8) Great voice chat (with filters, so you can transform your voice into like robot, old man, deep voice, micheal jackson, alien, etc)
9) browsing-based chatroom option (so you get a unique chatroom for each site you're currently browsing... for example, if you're browsing google.com/whatever/whatever.html, you can see a list of people that are using the im program and who are browsing google.com and you can chat with them in a chat room. (i saw this somewhere, I think it was called gooey messenger)
10) interactive games (not just ims)...kind of like yahoo, with chess and the doodler program
11) profiles that are kind of like mini-webpages (of course, you'll have to limit it to a certain amount of characters, and only certain size of images, certain amount of pages, etc. , instead of the aim generic box of words.
12) doesnt bug for updates, then update itself
13) no advertisements
14) personal chatrooms, like mirc (with admin/op/mod + topics options)
15) scripting
16) cell phone/text msg support (wap?)
17) some kind of thing that people can put on sites/forums that gets info from the server to see if they're online and shows an icon (like y!m, if someone is online, the image is a yellow smiley face, not online=dulled)
18) universal email support (like msn/aim to see if you have new emails/notify in the corner when you get a new email)
19) others said game/program support, like you can program it so that other programs can connect with it for chatting.
20) custom colors
21) can connect to the server with more than one nick at once (limit to 2 or 3?)
22) nick drop (like if you dont use your nick for a year, it gets dropped)[/

 

[Streetz]

Looks, cool, and is awesome that you're developing you're own.

However:
1) Is this really so bad? I would hate to have one with even 10 characters.
2-4) Use Trillian
5) Your personal feelings
6) Wouldn't want those anyways
7) I never use them either
8) I'll stick with a phone. Transform your voice? That's great, I see lots of sex predators and court cases in your future.
9) That's actually pretty interesting
10) I could see a lot of people using this, however like you said, Yahoo.
11) I honestly don't see too many people taking advantage of this, especially with MySpace.
12) This is a bad thing? If so, just update first, or go Trillian.
13) Trillian
14) Not bad, but any chatrooms for IM Apps I stay away from. I'll stick with IRC.
15) Interesting, explain.
16) Cool, but wouldn't use it
17) This would be cool. Don't they already have it? And how are you going to get forum board developers to incorporate it into their product?
18) I have enough email accounts, and that just adds one more of those popus (that you say you find annoying).
19) Confused, like Trillian?
20) Ok.
21) AIM has it, but who really needs more then one nickname?
22) I could see how it's useful

Those are just my thoughts and opinions, looks like you have a good project on your way, but I love my Trillian, all my IM programs into one. The only one that sounds really nice is the scripting and think you may be on to something with that one. Good luck on your journey and I hope it goes somewhere.