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Pomax Offline OP
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if you leave the (completely not required to connect to an IRC server) "email" field in the connect options blank, mirc will refuse to connect to a server.

this should not fail silently, but should pop up an error "email not filled in". Even better, it should not be a field at all, servers do not require an "email" field, just a username and realname string.

- Pomax

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Hoopy frood
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That's odd because when I try to use the server command while the email field is empty, I get an error beep and the options dialog pops up and the cursor is in the email field. If I try to click the connect button in the options dialog while the email field is empty, I get an error beep and the cursor jumps to the email field. How much more does one need, a brick over the head? Just put an email address in there, if even a fake one because this is what the server uses for your username if it doesn't receive an ident response from you.

~ Edit ~

I just tried putting "" in the email field and disabling the identd and it worked fine, mIRC just used my main nick as the username...

-> <server.name> NICK RoCk
-> <server.name> USER RoCk "" "<server.name>" :rocko


RoCk is ~RoCk@xxxx-DA11F568.dhcp.xxxx.xx.xxxxxxx.com * rocko

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Pomax Offline OP
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I meant silent in the "the program doesn't tell me what's wrong" sense. There might be a whole lot of beeping going on, but unless I have my volume turned on and I allow programs to beep, and not unimportantly I am not deaf (which is always a possibility, I happen to have functional hearing but not everyone does), I wouldn't know what was wrong.

The program goes to the email field, but *why*? That's the real problem; it needs to tell me why it's doing what it's doing. A simple popup dialog going "You didn't fill in something for the email field. You need to fill in something - doesn't have to be an email address - because this is used as a backup value for server identification" with just an "OK" button would suffice.

That said, if this field really is only used if the identd check fails, then it shouldn't be there in the first place. mIRC as client should be able to just use any other already set uservalue (like the primary nickname) as identd replacement instead. That way users are not confronted with fields that don't do "what's on the label".

- Pomax

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This is kind of pointless when i first got the internet and downloaded mIRC, there was no urge inside me not to fill in the email section, i mean why would they put it there if you wernt supposed to fill it in. Anyone with sense could understand what they did wrong without a flashing light show and popups pointing to it -.-

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Quote:
That said, if this field really is only used if the identd check fails, then it shouldn't be there in the first place. mIRC as client should be able to just use any other already set uservalue (like the primary nickname) as identd replacement instead. That way users are not confronted with fields that don't do "what's on the label".


Wrong. Users must be able to control their ident because it's an important part of the hostmask-- and identd is not available to all users. It's the only user controlled non-unique part of the hostmask that can be used to verify identity (pseudo-reliably) even when the user has multiple clients connected or has their primary nickname in use by someone else. I definitely would *not* want mIRC choosing my ident for me. I actually set [x] Use ID from email address in my identd settings so that I can supply per-connection identds for my multiple networks. This is one of the main advantages of the email field as an identd. The one identd field in the identd pane cannot accomplish this.

Maybe the field name of "email" should be updated to something more relevant (and not require an @host part), but it should surely not be removed. Frankly though, this is rarely brought up, and I don't think it's that big a deal once you get used to it.


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Pomax Offline OP
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congratulations, you're missing the point completely. I'm discussing this as the feature in a program for using IRC that it is, not as the feature you know it really it.

In any user-oriented program, which would most definitely include mIRC, it is good practice to let the user know that something went wrong in a way that informs them what to do next. just beeping and moving the cursor does not tell you why what you did was wrong, it only tells you that it was wrong. for useroriented software, that's not good practice.

Also, if the email is required because it is "essential" to the identd server built into mirc, then it should be listed as part of settings for mirc's identd system, not as a field called "email" with seemingly no relation to anything else. again, it's just poorly placed.

improving it would be trivial; a simple label text that tells users what still needs to be filled out before they can click OK on their settings for instance, or a pop up dialog when a user tries to commit his or her settings with the email field missing - and yeah, I agree with you argv0 that a simple rename of the field would probably do it, but you cannot raise the "people will get used to it" argument: this is an error you run in the very first time you use mirc, thus making it an error that can determine whether people even start using mirc or not (if the program throws up silent errors the first time it's tried, many people will not bother with it again).

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Hoopy frood
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Originally Posted By: Pomax

but you cannot raise the "people will get used to it" argument


There's no need for that argument because everyone has already gotten used to it. Know why? Because it has always been that way, and honestly I think that in all my years on these boards, this is the first complaint I've ever seen concerning this matter. I mean really, if I see a field labled 'Email Address' I'm thinking maybe I should put an email address there, if even a fake one... am I alone here? I really don't think the universe will implode eek if computer users have to actually start using their brains again. Thank you AOL. sick


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