I see dead people (aka talk with people which appears offline on msn) doesn't work anymore on gaim

[Alexandre Otto Strube]

Binary package hint: gaim

When someone chooses to appear as offline, this person can still talk to you, and if he/she does it, you are usually able to answer. This used to work on gaim, but now it doesn't.

I'm not aware about when this regression happens, but I'm quite sure that I was able to chat with the 'dead' :-)

[Elias Amaral (dlight)]

This bug happens here very frequently!

When gaim is still connected to the invisible user it's OK: I can reply. But after about 1 minute gaim automatically disconnects and BOOM - The gaim thinks the user is offline and I can't chat because gaim says "The user is offline".

I think the fix isn't very painful: It's just a matter of trying to connect the user even if it's disconnected.

But I am using Ubuntu Dapper with the gaim v1.5.1cvs, so maybe this is alredy fixed in 2.0

[Richard Laager (rlaager)]

Before I saw Elias's comment, I was going to ask if this is still possible in the official MSN client. However, with Elias's comment, I'm all-but-positive I know what is happening:

In MSN, the notification server handles status and sets up referrals for new conversations. The switchboard servers actually manage the conversations. If you open a conversation, you'll be able to continue talking on it even if the notification server goes down, but you can't open a new one. This is the same thing that's happening here. The reason that it only works for 1 minute is that the official client times out conversations in 1 minute. That's why we had to remove the "XYZ has closed the conversation window." notices.

I'm rejecting this as an invalid bug report. If you can confirm that it's possible to do what you've described in the official MSN client (or really, any other client, I suppose), then we can probably mark this confirmed.

[Alexandre Otto Strube (surak)]

I am using windows' live messenger 8.0.812.00 right now, and I can confirm that this can be done using it.

My test:

- say to someone talk to me when appearing as offline.
- say him to close his conversation window
- I closed my conversation window with him
- Wait for 20 minutes
- I open a conversation window with this person and talk him something
- He received the message instantly.

In fact, now msn can even store messages sent to offline people, as ICQ used to do ten years ago. But this is for another bug.

[Richard Laager (rlaager)]

Windows Live Messenger is not a valid test case (if we're talking about a bug). It uses a newer version of the protocol. Really, this is effectively a wishlist request for MSNP14 support, which is being worked on.

[deivid (deivid-rodriguez)]

This is the only feature I miss from Windows Live Messenger. I hope you'll be able to implement it. Regards!

[Ingo Gerth (igerth)]

I do really like Pidgin. But it is ridiculous that it does not support this feature. It is now two years since this missing feature has been reported and there still is no reaction! Come on devs!

[Hew (hew)]

Taken from the Pidgin FAQ ( http://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/FAQ ):

"Pidgin 2.4.3 and older versions use MSNP9. Pidgin 2.5.0 will probably use MSNP15 (but it's not yet released)."

Expect to see this feature soon.

[Ingo Gerth (igerth)]

Yeah! This feature was finally implemented in Pidgin 2.5 which was releaseed today! :-) I'm so happy, you made my day, no, my week! Been waiting for this feature for ages!
Cheers, Ingo

[Hew (hew)]

Pidgin 2.5.0 is in the repos now (bug 259453). Marking fixed.