Pidgin v2.6.6 can't use QQ anymore

[David Woolley]

Oops.  Set the wrong CC and Reply-To first time!

Shuai Zhang wrote:
> I am new for Pidgin. I downloaded Pidgin v2.6.6, MSN is working all 
> right. But when I try to add and connect a QQ account , It said "尊敬的 
> 用户，您的QQ版本已经停止使用，
> 请到http://hi.qq.com下载并安装最新的QQ版本。给您带来不便，敬请谅解！" 
> which means "you cant use this version, please go to our website and 
> download the current version".
> So what should I do now? Waiting for next version of Pidgin?

You will need to obtain a detailed protocol specification, with no
non-disclosure restrictions, from the people who operate the QQ service,
or you will need to find technically minded users of the service who are
able to reverse engineer the changes.

What is the business model of QQ's operators?  Some business models are
incompatible with open source clients, which would guarantee that they
wouldn't cooperate.

In practice, you will probably then need to find open source programmers
in China to update the relevant parts of Pidgin.

The US and European developers are unlikely to have a great interest in
subscribing to QQ to reverse engineer it, and, in the unlikely event
that documentation is provided, are unlikely to be able to read it.

All Pidgin development is done by volunteers, and anyone can volunteer,
as long as they have the necessary skills and the legal right to
copyright their own computer software (people who work as professional
computer programmers, in many countries, cannot own what they write,
even if they do it in their spare time!).

I would suggest searching for Chinese language open source developer
forums and posting there.

-- 
David Woolley
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