Re: Word-a-Day: instant message

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Fri, 2008-04-11 at 02:32 +0000, Curtis Hovey wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-04-10 at 14:48 -0500, Shaun McCance wrote:
> > On Thu, 2008-04-10 at 21:23 +0200, Luca Ferretti wrote:
> > > Il giorno mar, 08/04/2008 alle 11.15 -0500, Shaun McCance ha scritto:
> > > > Luca, you sent this off-list.  I don't see anything personal
> > > > or whatever in here, so I assume it was an accident.
> > > 
> > > Sorry, my fault, clicked the wrong button..
> > > 
> > > > > I mean, in applications, the menu entry I've choose in order to contact
> > > > > my best friend, should be "send a new instant message" or "open/start a
> > > > > new conversation"? 
> > > > 
> > > > Good question.  I think when the context of instant
> > > > messaging has been established, words like "message"
> > > > and "conversation" can be used alone.  Gaim 2.0 uses
> > > > "New Instant Message" in the Buddies menu, but "IM"
> > > 
> > > OT: could we kill "buddy"?
> > 
> > Added to the list.  Is "contact" a good word?
> 
> I agree that buddy should be banned. I don't like 'contact'. I think it
> has too many meanings to be associated with a person. Are chat rooms
> also contacts?
> 
> Using my wife as an example, she stumbles to find someone's email
> address/address/phone number is Evolution because it uses the term
> 'Contacts'. She is thinking of an people or address book. I think this
> is a similar problem. This is may only be an issue in English.

Well, English is what we're making recommendation for. :)
I do take into consideration the recommendation of our
translators for what's difficult to translate.  But for
actual terminology recommendations, our translation teams
will have to figure out for themselves what to do in their
respective languages.

That aside, your wife's difficulties are interesting.  I've
run words by my fiancée, who is by no means a computer geek.
If she has trouble with a word, it indicates to me that we
could do better.

> No better words come time mind, but I would prefer a word that
> definitely meant people and groups. 

In geek lingo, we'd use the word "entity".  But
I wouldn't inflict that word on normal people.

Anyway, we should save this for an actual thread
on the term.

--
Shaun