[Ayatana] Messaging Menu and the MeMenu

[Apoorva Sharma <appi2012@xxxxxxxxx>]

Right now, the Messaging Menu and MeMenu are kind of connected, in that the functionality of the MeMenu changes by clicks in the Messaging Menu. For example, to get a text box for a broadcast account in the MeMenu, the user has to go to the Messaging Menu to start Gwibber. Furthermore, to actually use the inactive status buttons in the MeMenu, the user has to start chat from the messaging menu, To me, this split functionality causes some problems. Especially since the two menus are separated by a large date-time-weather applet, how is a user supposed to know how to use the MeMenu, since all its functions need to be activated from the messaging menu?

One solution could be merging the two menus, but that could create too large a menu. A better solution could be to have the textbox and buttons appear when the user sets up the two accounts for the first time, and to keep them active. Thus, if the user selects something other than offline as their status, the chat service should automatically start running in the background. Also, if someone types in the textbox, an Gwibber isn't running in the background, it should start by itself. This has the advantage of allowing the functionalities of the MeMenu to be easily discovered and used, while still keeping a separation between the "new message" indicator, and the "my status" menu.

I would like to know what the rationale for the current functionality is.