Talk:Adium

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[edit] Older Revision

This page is just a free advert for the software, it is not an encyclopedia article. I'm going to point it out on votes for deletion, so get your act together or expect to see it gone. It's also not important enough to warrant a link on the Mac OS X page, sorry. GRAHAMUK 11:45, 10 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I'm afraid that I don't understand what you dislike about this page. A quick search revealed others quite like it, for other instant messengers: Trillian (instant messenger), Fire (instant messenger), MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, iChat, many of which are far more ad-like than this one.
If you would like to contact one of the Adium developers, head to http://www.adiumx.com/development.php . Starting with a nice request and suggestions on how to make this entry more encyclopaedic, instead of a hostile demand, would be a great way to improve this entry. -- David dchoby98, Adium Developer
Just a note: GRAHAMUK's comment, the one David was referring to, was about a previous version of the page, and Adium has since been rewritten. --bdesham 19:29, 18 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Background

Adium is an open source multi-platform, multi-service instant messaging program available for Mac OS X. Its messaging services implementation is provided by the open source Gaim library, popular on Linux. Adium is a highly customizable IM application, written by a team and community that have clearly taken to the medium and activity of Instant Messaging. It incorporates features resurrected from IRC (eg recalling previous message history), tabbed chat windows borrowed from Mozilla, and altogether original innovations like meta contacts (combining several IM accounts in your contacts list into a single entity).

While lacking in the A/V conferencing features offered by Apple's iChat (the Mac's default IM program), Adium provides an ad-free, fully customizable, and very poweruser-friendly IM experience to Mac users; particularly those that conduct multiple chats simultaneously.

[edit] Adium is NOT AdiumX

Adium is a seperate program than AdiumX. AdiumX is the rewrite of Adium. Shouldn't this page talk about the original Adium?

For the purposes of this article, we're considering Adium [original] and AdiumX to be two versions of the same program. Breaking the information into two articles wouldn't really leave enough content in either article, IMO. --bdesham 20:16, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)
The above is the correct interpretation. The X is technically a part of the version number, according to the developers.

[edit] Version number

The article says that the last release was 0.77 / February 18, 2005, but the official version history says 0.76 (1/30/2005). --Ellmist 06:33, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

This has been fixed, sometimes that page isn't updated immediately.

[edit] Notability

I'm amazed that someone added the Notability template to this page. Adium is one of the "big three" third-party messengers for OS X: Proteus, Fire, Adium. It has well over 5000 users (I think the last estimates were around 30,000 - 40,000) and has been around since OS X 10.0. A Google search for "Adium" (not a common word otherwise) returns over 1 million hits. It is usually considered the most popular multiprotocol messenger for OS X. As a random example, Adium is the only third-party messenger which Google has configuration instructions for on its Gtalk site. Likewise, Gizmo Project's only supported 3rd-party tool is Adium.

Adium has also spawned Growl, another notable piece of software. Do we need additional proof? Incidentally -- why do Fire and Proteus not have a Notability template as well? -- dcclark (talk) 16:24, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree. Adium is clearly notable. Removed Notability template. GregChant 19:51, 23 February 2006 (UTC)
Just as the the tag said, "please expand the article to establish notability, citing reliable sources. See Wikipedia:Notability (software)" I found no proof of its notability in the current article. --Perfecto 00:26, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
I provided a good bit of evidence about why Adium is notable, but none of it belongs in the article. The article should not cite "over 1 million google hits" or "This is the only OS X messenger which Gtalk references". They are good examples of notability, but they aren't useful in the article itself. Could you suggest what sort of things would sufficiently expand the article for you? Additionally, I mentioned before: why don't Fire or Proteus have similar tags? -- dcclark (talk) 03:36, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
I have added the following sentence to the article: "It is now one of the three most popular instant messaging programs for OS X, along with Fire and Proteus." I think this establishes Adium's notability pretty firmly. (If people feel that the references to the other two programs are inappropriate for the lead paragraph, please feel to change it.) --bdesham ★ 03:55, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
See Wikipedia:Notability (software) for the inclusion criteria. I've tagged Fire and Proteus now - Do you have more? BTW, a "three most popular" claim is best served with a citation. Do you have independent proof? Cite proof so no one can say you're making things up. See Wikipedia:Verifiability. --Perfecto 04:00, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
I have added (as an example) a link to the SourceForge download statistics. You may notice that the peak was above 100,000 downloads/month, and it is typically around 2000-3000 downloads/month. I still feel that this information does NOT belong on the article page, but I hope it shows you that Adium is indeed notable. Incidentally, you may wish to check out the List of instant messengers -- presumably nearly every messenger there should be questioned for notability. Do note, however, that Adium is listed under "Mainstream". -- dcclark (talk)
I further submit these links, which do not belong on the article page, as evidence. Note that adding some of this information would nearly be advertising ("MacWorld says that Adium is top notch!"), and so shouldn't be added:
Review at Macworld (Read the whole article as well, Adium is declared "top notch")
MacUpdate entry Note the > 100,000 downloads.
VersionTracker entry Also > 100,000 downloads
[1] Adium forums (as well as related projects) Note > 6000 users
I hope that this helps establish the credibility of the article. -- dcclark (talk) 06:31, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
Please respect Wikipedia guidelines. These pieces of software are clearly notable. I suggest you become a little bit more familiar with software projects in general before editing these pages. As said previously, Fire, Proteus, and Adium are the three most popular messaging clients for Mac OS X, and have been for several years. Please review the pages submitted by dcclark and remove these notices. GregChant 06:50, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
Addendum to the numbers quoted by dcclark above: The previous version of Adium as of this writing, 1.0.1, had 785,543 downloads between its release on 2/16/2007 and the release of 1.0.2 on 3/25/07. Evands 18:51, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Google Summer of Code?

I thought I read something about Adium being the Google Summer of Code project this summer. Is this correct or was I dreaming? PaulC/T+ 02:25, 10 May 2006 (UTC)

It's not the project, just one of the many Summer of Code projects, for this summer. It's not particularly notable unless every other Summer of Code project has a note on its page. -- dcclark (talk) 02:55, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
Yeah, when I followed the link after my post I realized this. Oops. But, why would it be more or less notable if every other Summer of Code project was or wasn't listed on its page? We should just be concerned about the Adium page. If the fact that Adium has a SoC project is important for the Adium app, it should be noted on this page. Right? That is what makes sense to me. PaulC/T+ 23:55, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
There are a *lot* of projects taking part in the Summer of Code. I don't think it's a particularly notable thing to be one of those projects, but I wouldn't object to there being a note about it in the article. In addition, many things are important for Adium -- for example, Webkit passing Acid2 or the recent spamminess of ICQ's "web-aware" mode. That doesn't necessarily need to be mentioned in the article, though. -- dcclark (talk) 00:38, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

Can someone add how to pronounce adium?

I think it's pronounced "AY-dee-um", if I recall correctly from a messageboard post by one of the developers; I'll look for it and get back about that. – Mipadi 18:30, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
Adam, the founder of the project, pronounces it "AY-dee-um". Evan, the lead developer, pronounces it "ADD-ee-um". Most people do whatever they like, there is no official pronunciation. -- dcclark (talk) 21:03, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
That information is in the FAQ on the Adium website. WP isn't a mirror for that information. --Colin Barrett 03:54, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
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