I’m about ready to give up on Digsby. I’ve been a faithful user for the past year and a half, and I’ve written about it positively as well, but it seems as if they have no desire to implement two of the biggest missing features since the beta: Group chat, and in-line text formatting (the ability to bold/italicize/etc. individual letters and words). Instead, they seem content to push forward with more complex social networking features (today, it’s URL shortening and better MySpace Newsfeed support), all the while ignoring what I consider basic features for any IM client.
I don’t think I’m being greedy by asking for these features. Group chat (and chat room) support was a part of AIM since the 90s, and it’s also a feature of every major IM platform that Digsby supports. It’s shocking to me that so long after Digsby’s release, I still need to open up another client or head to Meebo to participate in group chat.
Similarly, I have no idea what’s keeping them from implementing proper in-line text formatting. Currently, if you choose any formatting options in Digsby, it applies that formatting to the entire post. For example, writing a sentence like this would be impossible in Digsby because it would end up bolding, underlining, and italicizing the entire sentence. Somehow, this doesn’t seem like a feature that should be missing from any text-heavy program in the year 2009, let alone something focused on text communication.
This is what happened when I tried to format a single word in this post:
I initially started using Digsby as a replacement to Trillian Pro for aggregating all of my IM services (I was tired of waiting for Trillian Astra), and the fact that it also aggregated social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter was convenient at the time as well. Things are different today. I use TweetDeck to follow Twitter (and occasionally Facebook), and Trillian Astra is finally out in public beta. Trillian actually supports group chat and in-line formatting, and is aiming to compete with Digsby with social networking aggregation as well. And yes, I know about Miranda IM and Pidgin, but both are a bit too simple (not to mention fugly) for my tastes.
I can’t imagine I’m the only one annoyed by Digsby’s shortcomings, but I suppose most users are too dependent on its more advanced features to let these minor issues bother them. I honestly think the Digsby team has done great work on the client since beta as well, but that doesn’t excuse them from failing to implement two fairly basic features.
At this point, I’m going to switch over to Trillian Astra full time to see if it does everything else I need. After criticizing the Cerulean Studios team for so long on their delayed Astra release cycle, I owe them this much. If the Digsby team ever decides to fix these features, I may give it another shot.
Dear Digsby, Where’s the Group Chat and In Line Text Formatting?!
I’m about ready to give up on Digsby. I’ve been a faithful user for the past year and a half, and I’ve written about it positively as well, but it seems as if they have no desire to implement two of the biggest missing features since the beta: Group chat, and in-line text formatting (the ability to bold/italicize/etc. individual letters and words). Instead, they seem content to push forward with more complex social networking features (today, it’s URL shortening and better MySpace Newsfeed support), all the while ignoring what I consider basic features for any IM client.
I don’t think I’m being greedy by asking for these features. Group chat (and chat room) support was a part of AIM since the 90s, and it’s also a feature of every major IM platform that Digsby supports. It’s shocking to me that so long after Digsby’s release, I still need to open up another client or head to Meebo to participate in group chat.
Similarly, I have no idea what’s keeping them from implementing proper in-line text formatting. Currently, if you choose any formatting options in Digsby, it applies that formatting to the entire post. For example, writing a sentence like this would be impossible in Digsby because it would end up bolding, underlining, and italicizing the entire sentence. Somehow, this doesn’t seem like a feature that should be missing from any text-heavy program in the year 2009, let alone something focused on text communication.
This is what happened when I tried to format a single word in this post:
I initially started using Digsby as a replacement to Trillian Pro for aggregating all of my IM services (I was tired of waiting for Trillian Astra), and the fact that it also aggregated social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter was convenient at the time as well. Things are different today. I use TweetDeck to follow Twitter (and occasionally Facebook), and Trillian Astra is finally out in public beta. Trillian actually supports group chat and in-line formatting, and is aiming to compete with Digsby with social networking aggregation as well. And yes, I know about Miranda IM and Pidgin, but both are a bit too simple (not to mention fugly) for my tastes.
I can’t imagine I’m the only one annoyed by Digsby’s shortcomings, but I suppose most users are too dependent on its more advanced features to let these minor issues bother them. I honestly think the Digsby team has done great work on the client since beta as well, but that doesn’t excuse them from failing to implement two fairly basic features.
At this point, I’m going to switch over to Trillian Astra full time to see if it does everything else I need. After criticizing the Cerulean Studios team for so long on their delayed Astra release cycle, I owe them this much. If the Digsby team ever decides to fix these features, I may give it another shot.