How to auto-respond to buddy when they send first message?

[Etan Reisner]

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 01:05:35PM -0800, hydrostarr wrote:
<snip>
> As such, I'd like this automated-response to to popup when they first sent
> me a message (say, first message within the last 20 mins or so):
>
>
> > (This is a recording) I'm not "Facebooking," rather connected via Pidgin
> > (chat client). But I still might respond. :)
> >
>
> http://old.nabble.com/How-to-get-autoreply-plugin-to-work--to30805443.html
> autoreply doesn't appear to work .  Can't get Buddy Pounce to do what I
> want--it (buddy pounce in 2.7.9) disables the "send message" checkbox when
> someone sends ::me:: a message.  (What's up with that?)  Further, I'm not
> sure how the "recurring" pounce/reply would work; don't want said auto-reply
> to happen all the time, just at the "beginning" of a contact, conversation.

The autoreply plugin likely does not respond when you are not idle or away
(as doing so would interfere with normal conversations). It also may not
do the only-once behaviour you want.

> Someone else suggested to me (Buddy) Alarm, might work...but I have yet to
> find something called "buddy alarm."

I think "Buddy Alarm" tends to be a translation of "Buddy Pounce".

> Any other thoughts, suggestions?

The best solution to this is likely to be a custom plugin which sends a
message on new incoming conversations. Writing such a plugin should be
fairly easy to do.

    -Etan