[OTR-users] Request: Pidgin plugin should request refresh if other user offline

[Gregory Maxwell]

On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 8:06 PM, Ian Goldberg <ian at cypherpunks.ca> wrote:
> The trouble is that some people go offline, but keep their pidgin
> running, and so keep their session keys.  They *want* their messages to
> remain readable when they get back online.  So we implemented the "if

This brings up a minor peeve of mine, — not a significant enough one
that that I've felt like fixing it myself but:

Far end logs off cleanly.  OTR shuts down.   Later I come back and
type into the IM window. The message doesn't send, instead it just
outputs a notice that OTR was shut down.   I can happily type into
this box for sometime before noticing that it's not working.  Worse—
I've lost what I wrote because the text doesn't appear in the history.

I totally get and appreciate that you don't want one side thinking the
channel is OTR protected and blabbering away into a clear-text
deactivated stream.  ... and that messages which are never sent should
probably not show up in the history  (otherwise I might never notice
that my messages are not going out! :) )....

But—  could it just attempt to initiate a new session in this case—
then send the message, and not bother me with the fact that the other
side logged out at all?

Obviously this could result in the far end getting OTR spam that they
can't handle until I shut the session, but even in that worst case it
is no more work than what I have to do now for every case. The
OTR-spam issue also already exists if the far end changes clients
without shutting down, so this wouldn't really make it any worse.

I could see security issue if a e.g. a known contact logs off and
someone else logs on with their account from another client, and you
don't notice.   But if they logged off uncleanly OTR will happily
renegotiate as it...