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e3ace39
(Get the code!)
I thought it was pretty clear, but I'll list them out here for completeness, numbered according to their numbers in the original posting:
1. Make the sound volume adjustable, like in Pidgin.
2. Play the sound even when the conversation window is focused.
3. Make the Messaging Menu icon in the notification area compliant with the Gnome HIG. I'm not a human factors guy, so I don't pretend to have the One True Answer. Some ideas though:
a. Mailbox with flag (like xbiff).
b. Throbbing envelope when there's a new message (but not flashing or too annoying).
4. N/A
5. When there is an unread message in the conversation window, bold and color the tab on which the message exists. Maybe as an easy stop-gap, reverse the icons used for "no new messages" and "new message" (eg: the white and green ones).
6. Change the default theme to show URGENT windows in the pager as inverse color (Gray on White, maybe) instead of white on lighter-
So there are 6 ideas. Note that they are just ideas. The fact that those exact ideas themselves aren't implemented should not turn into the main focus of this bug.
Some might say that I should split this report up six ways. I submit that if I had, each one would have gotten dismissed as not really a problem, but a subjective feature enhancement request. Once it has been determined what to do to rectify the problem as a whole, I would suggest _at_that_point_, for someone (even me) to split this bug up into individual tasks.
I reiterate that the problem is not any one of these things, but their sum. The problem here is that the current methods of getting the attention of the user are inadequate, and that it's very easy for the user to miss new messages that come in.
I also reiterate that the people in charge of Empathy's user interface should take a good hard look at the things which Pidgin does to get the user's attention. I'm not blowing the horn for Pidgin here, I'm just saying that they seem to have the human factors area worked out pretty well. Maybe something can be learned from Kopete as well (I've never used it).