AdiIRC

Modify the system tray icon to have multiple states.

• State 1: No activity since last viewing the channel - The current brownish icon with a white # sign satisfies this
• State 2: There has been activity on the channel
• State 3: You have been highlighted in a channel - The flashing on the current icon satisfies this, although I would rather see an option to change the icon rather than flash it

The Nettalk IRC client (http://www.ntalk.de/Nettalk/en/) implements this using four states. The default icon shows no activity. When there has been channel activity (quits, joins, channel messages, etc.), the bottom of the icon turns yellow. When there has been user chat activity, the bottom of the icon turns reddish. When the user's nick has been highlighted, the icon turns into a red ball.

This makes it easy to see whether you need to look at activity in the channel by glancing at the icon. I usually ignore Nettalk's channel activity state, but I know that I need to respond to a message if I see a red ball and I should poke my head in soon to see what is being discussed if I see that the bottom of the icon is red.