[Pidgin] #5088: Offline contact detection

[Pidgin]

#5088: Offline contact detection
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  Reporter:  jimmyjoefredbob  |       Owner:  lschiere
      Type:  defect           |      Status:  new     
  Priority:  minor            |   Milestone:          
 Component:  unclassified     |     Version:  2.4.0   
Resolution:                   |    Keywords:          
   Pending:  0                |  
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Comment (by trisweb):

 Yep, you are correct. This is me taking advantage of a broken Invisibility
 status from previous AIM protocols.

 I still say that if you have the information about Offline messages, it
 would still be useful information to the user presented as a small
 notification. Your plugin example would be fine.

 >I never expect an immediate response, even from people who are online,
 because I know many people are often doing things other than sitting on IM
 and thus my response may take a minute or two or ten to respond to.

 I fundamentally disagree with this, as it's far more likely that a
 response will come faster if the user is signed on. I understand the
 dynamics of IM and the personal delays involved, but there is a difference
 between waiting for a person to see the message already delivered, and
 waiting for someone to sign on and see the message waiting to be
 delivered. In Pidgin currently, there is no information to the sender
 about which is which and what to wait for, which isn't bad, but can be
 confusing.

 The second option is to simply have the option to turn off Offline
 messaging. There are some people who may not want this turned on all the
 time, myself included.

 In any case, not a big deal, I was just startled by the change of
 notification.

 > I don't believe pidgin ever did the "Before: (no Offline Messaging)"
 scenario on AIM, if it did that was broken, it shouldn't have.
 Indeed it did, prior to offline messaging, it would bring up an error if
 the message ever did not go through (if the user was Offline) and no error
 if the user received the message (if they were invisible). In fact, the
 loss of this notification is the whole reason for this ticket.

 I know you believe it's an abuse of an unintended feature, but why not?
 Why would you willfully withhold information from the user about whether
 their message is delayed or sent? Of course it's only in the
 Invisible/Offline case, but the sudden lack of that information is just
 kind of annoying. If you can provide it, withholding it just seems silly.

 It's like waiting for an elevator. You click the button. The doors open if
 the elevator is there, of course, but if it's not there then you don't
 know when the elevator's going to come unless you have one of those little
 displays that shows where the elevator is. The added information isn't
 necessarily needed, and you can wait however long you'll wait, but it sure
 is useful to know that the elevator's on the 8th floor coming down. Why
 not give that information? It's simply useful to know that your messages
 are going to be delayed.

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Ticket URL: <http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/5088#comment:6>
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