*** Original post on bio 468 at 2010-08-07 14:16:00 UTC *** Could make sense to have something like an account display name: for example for Facebook, the server name is fixed and the resource is most likely of little interest. Still both is shown for such accounts. Maybe you're not not even interested in the actual login name but like to describe the account somehow else.

*** Original post on bio 468 at 2010-08-08 09:32:29 UTC *** How is this different from the alias?

*** Original post on bio 468 at 2010-08-08 13:20:13 UTC *** (In reply to comment #1) > How is this different from the alias? It should be a name for the account that could be different from the alias shown for your name. This display name would appear on the tooltips, drop downs of Join Chat/Add Buddy and as 'display name' on the account manager. The account details (ie username (@server/whatsoever) could appear on the selected account only. This would make the account manager more clear/reduce visual clutter. It could be different from alias since someone might like to use "Mic (Mozilla)" to clearify which account is meant.

*** Original post on bio 468 as attmnt 326 at 2010-08-08 13:53:00 UTC *** Here's the alias used as account display name if you like to try how it feels in action.

*** Original post on bio 468 as attmnt 327 at 2010-08-09 17:50:00 UTC *** The code was slightly modified though to put the account details on the same line as the alias.

*** Original post on bio 468 at 2010-08-09 22:32:19 UTC *** I'm not sure I agree with the UI proposal, but some of the things you point out make a lot of sense. What we currently have as an "alias" is completely unclear for the average user. As it a confusing step of the new account wizard, I thought several time already about completely getting rid of aliases on accounts. I postponed this until we add an easy way to set the display name for all accounts (this was shown on the mockup of the status selector where there was the buddy icon). This would change the display name for all accounts at once, and the display name would be changed both locally and visible by the remote contact. What you are trying to do here makes me think that finally the alias on accounts may not be useless, but it's just very poorly implemented currently. The alias should not be associated with the display name in conversation, because the user only have one name. The alias should only be used when the user needs to do something related to the specific account, like in the join chat/add buddy dialogs. I guess I need to ponder this a bit more before having a correct proposal about what we can do. I figured it would be better to just share my thoughts rather than staying silent on this until I know what to do. :-)

*** Original post on bio 468 as attmnt 335 at 2010-08-22 17:26:00 UTC *** Emphasized the account alias by setting font-size:larger. Moved the account details / 'the real name' below the 'headline', ie the alias.

On the behalf of Florian: Closing bugs related to the Instantbird UI as WONTFIX, as the development of the standalone chat client Instantbird has stopped. Instantbird users are encouraged to migrate to Thunderbird. The user interface of instant messaging in Thunderbird will feel familiar, as the Thunderbird IM support started as a fork of Instantbird.