Look, I appreciate the thought, but really: you *don't* understand the context yet.
User specified isn't appropriate -- indeed, it misses the point. The identifier in question isn't the user, it's the *conversation*. And insisting that users choose a unique identifier for every conversation is a clear non-starter.
Color is a theoretical option, sure (for clients that support it, which isn't all of them) -- but that provides no handle for reference. How does the user say which conversation he wants to drop out of, or follow more closely? How does he refer to specific messages within it? These are all crucial functions, and you're not providing a handle to hang them off of. You're saying that the tag should take up "less space", but less space than one character is zero -- and that kills all sorts of functionality. That one-character tag is used in many ways. I wouldn't be bothering with it if it wasn't going to be *used* extensively.
(Nor is the scrolling necessary, BTW -- simply type "6", and it instantly spits the conversation info for #6 back at you. This is an interactive system.)
I'm not claiming that numbering is ideal; far from it, it's a stopgap to work with the lowest common denominator UI, which is IM. Ideal would be a client properly designed for this purpose, and that's in the plans for a few months down the line. But it's functional, and the other options you cite aren't. You're making assumptions about how things work that simply aren't true...
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Date: 2008-07-25 03:58 am (UTC)User specified isn't appropriate -- indeed, it misses the point. The identifier in question isn't the user, it's the *conversation*. And insisting that users choose a unique identifier for every conversation is a clear non-starter.
Color is a theoretical option, sure (for clients that support it, which isn't all of them) -- but that provides no handle for reference. How does the user say which conversation he wants to drop out of, or follow more closely? How does he refer to specific messages within it? These are all crucial functions, and you're not providing a handle to hang them off of. You're saying that the tag should take up "less space", but less space than one character is zero -- and that kills all sorts of functionality. That one-character tag is used in many ways. I wouldn't be bothering with it if it wasn't going to be *used* extensively.
(Nor is the scrolling necessary, BTW -- simply type "6", and it instantly spits the conversation info for #6 back at you. This is an interactive system.)
I'm not claiming that numbering is ideal; far from it, it's a stopgap to work with the lowest common denominator UI, which is IM. Ideal would be a client properly designed for this purpose, and that's in the plans for a few months down the line. But it's functional, and the other options you cite aren't. You're making assumptions about how things work that simply aren't true...