[JDEV] Privacy mode

[Jens Alfke]

On Sunday, April 22, 2001, at 01:03 PM, Oliver Wing wrote:

> i disagree with this. You can of course send presence packets to 
> individual
> users. Indeed, if they aren't on your roster, this is the only way you 
> can
> do so.

But why would you want to send your presence info to someone who didn't 
subscribe to it? Sounds like junk mail :)

> It also gives you the ability to control what presence gets sent to
> individual users.

I don't mind the idea of "invisibility", but this one bothers me. 
Forging presence to show different states to different people seems 
shady somehow. Maybe because it has no real-life equivalent. Invisible 
mode is like being able to look into a crowded room before (or instead 
of) walking in and making yourself known; but sending different presence 
states to different people doesn't correspond to anything people are 
used to, and the only uses I can think of for it are deceitful (sending 
"available" to your boss while everyone else sees your actual "xa" 
status because you've taken off for the afternoon...)

--Jens