I agree with watchdog, and I especially dislike the one in that "altered" image.
I might add that the type of status bars which have been talked about are all scriptable.
Lastly, I have a point to make: there is only a certain amount of laziness we IRC-going people should afford ourselves. I prefer to type out commands like /mode #DolphinRules -o MegaZeroX, etc. I still use popups every now and then, or the channel dialogue. I consider this all relatively easy. Now, adding something else that is 5% easier to use than a popup just for the point of having it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
