A preference to display the amount of "unread conversations" for the Dock icon and the Status Menu Item.
Right now (1.2b2), there are a few places where you can see the number of total unread messages:
-the Dock icon
-the Status Menu Item
-the tab of that conversation (for the number of unread messages for that conversation, of course)
For the number of message of each tab, I find that it makes sense, and I have no complaints.
But I feel that, for the Dock icon and the Status Menu Item, it would be more useful to display the number of "unread conversations" (as in the number of conversations that have new messages).
For instance:
I would look at the Status Menu Item, and it says "3."
So I have 3 new messages...
...but how many contacts/conversations are they from?
3 messages from 1 single contact? Or perhaps 2 from 1 contact and 1 from another? Or perhaps 3 contacts and 1 from each??
And also, you're about to check the messages anyway, so IMO there's no need to know the specific amount of total new messages.
IMO, it'd be more useful to know how many different conversations/contacts has sent you new messages.
It gives you an idea of "oh, I have to check X amount of conversations with new messages."
Forum thread: http://forums.cocoaforge.com/viewtopic.php?t=15954