How to weed out offline users from XMPP group chats ?

[Mark Doliner]

On Tue, Apr 9, 2013 at 8:09 AM, George Kodinov <gkodinov at gmail.com> wrote:
> Is there any way to get the user at-a-glance online status for participants
> in XMPP group chats (conferences) in the participant list ?

I think the short answer is probably "no."

> Right now I just see a bunch of users (some of them with an icon next to
> their name) that may or may not be online at this moment

Hmm, I think all users in this list must be online.  I don't think
it's possible to be offline but still appear in an XMPP group chat.
However, it IS possible for someone to be idle or away.  And in this
case I think your only hope is to right-click and get the status
throught he "Info" command.  You're right, it's cumbersome and Pidgin
could probably make this easier.