tech support

[Peter N. Spotts]

On Sat, 17 Nov 2007 11:54:50 -0500
"Joe Conway" <ccjoseph at email.unc.edu> wrote:

> Thanks Pete! I got the tabbed windows... Now, it still won't load my
> buddy list without AIM running first. There is no preference (that I
> can find) in AIM telling me where the list is stored, on my HD or on
> the server. I don't know if anybody else has any more info on this,
> but it would be great if I could get it to work.
> Joe
> 
> -------------------
> Joe Conway
> Email: ccjoseph at email.unc.edu
> IM: JoeConwayR
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter N. Spotts [mailto:pspotts at alum.mit.edu] 
> Sent: Saturday, November 17, 2007 11:37 AM
> To: Joe Conway
> Cc: support at pidgin.im
> Subject: Re: tech support
> 
> On Sat, 17 Nov 2007 11:14:56 -0500
> "Joe Conway" <ccjoseph at email.unc.edu> wrote:
> 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I couldn't find any tech support contact info on the Pidgin website,
> > so I posted here. 
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > I just installed Pidgin 2.2.2 on a Windows XP machine. I want to use
> > it for my AIM account. The only way I can get any of my buddies to
> > show up on my buddy list, in Pidgin, is to have AIM open first. If
> > AIM is closed, the Pidgin buddy list comes up empty and I can't do
> > anything. This defeats the purpose of having Pidgin because I have
> > to have AIM and Pidgin installed, when I only want to use Pidgin.
> > Also, I can't use tabbed windows in Pidgin. My conversations, all
> > appear in separate windows. I'd like to have all my conversations
> > be in one tabbed window. How can I fix this so I can use Pidgin,
> > have it work, and uninstall AIM? Any help would be greatly
> > appreciated. Thank you.
> > 
> > Joe Conway
> > 
> > -------------------
> > 
> > Joe Conway
> > 
> > Email: ccjoseph at email.unc.edu
> > 
> > IM: JoeConwayR
> > 
> >  
> 
> Hi Joe,
> 
> And welcome to the main way to get tech support on open-source
> software...via the mailing lists. It's not clear from your note how
> much you've worked your way through Pidgin's menus, but if you prefer
> to have your conversations show up as tabs in one window only, you can
> set that from Preferences=>Interface. I'm assuming -- always dangerous
> -- that Pidgin's layout on Windows is the same as it is on Linux. Once
> in the Interface section, make sure you have "Show IMs and chats in
> tabbed windows" checked. Then look a bit farther down the same
> settings tab for "New conversations" and set that to "Last created
> window." That should ensure that all conversations appear in new tabs
> but only in one window.
> 
> As for having Pidgin pick up your buddy list, I'm not sure what may be
> causing that problem. My version of Pidgin automatically picks up
> my list, although when I ran it for the first time, I did have to
> wait a few seconds for Pidgin to fetch the buddies from AIM's server.
> Just out of curiosity, is there a setting in AIM's IM client that
> allows you to choose whether to store the buddy list on your machine
> only, or on AIM's servers as well? If so, that could be why the
> server (and Pidgin) only picks the buddy list up when AIM is active --
> your settings may be instructing the program *not* to store the buddy
> list on the server. If that's the case, you might change that
> setting. 
> 
> I hope at least some of this helps...
> 
> With best regards,
> 
> Pete
> 

Well! Glad we got that far. And you might want to make sure your replies
go the list as well as to me. These exchanges get archived on the
list server so others having similar problems can use the information as
well. That way, if they check the list archives first, they may find the
answer before they even need to post. And they can follow the thread,
including any contributions made by people other than the original
poster and the original "replier."

As for the blank list, I draw a blank. At least as a test, you might
check your Pidgin settings to show even off-line buddies. I could
imagine (not being one of the people who designed the program!) that
some odd combination of show buddies/don't show buddies could do this.
But now I'm treading on exceptionally thin ice!

Pete

-- 
Peter N. Spotts | Science reporter
The Christian Science Monitor
One Norway Street, Boston, MA 02115 USA
Office: 617-450-2449 | Office-in-home: 508-520-3139
Email: pspotts at alum.mit.edu | Amateur-radio call: KC1JB
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