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

[Matthias Andree]

Am 26.04.2010 02:06, schrieb Ian Goldberg:

> 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
> you quit your pidgin, the OTR session will close; if you just go
> offline, it won't" mechanism.

Fine.

> Personally, I'd prefer if IM networks didn't let you send messages to
> offline parties, since they're not "instant"; that's what email is for.
> But my personal preferences are neither here nor there.  ;-)

Such an "refuse to send if other end offline" inside the OTR plugin would make
sense. I could configure Aunt Tillie's Pidgin that way and she knows she can't
send and has to use mail instead.

> The way it is now, Bob ends up receiving a message from Alice he cannot
> read -- and is informed of that fact; he could try to contact Alice to
> find out what it was.  If Alice was unable to send the message, Bob
> wouldn't even know that she tried.  Which is better?  I don't think it's
> 100% either way.

Now if Alice is offline by the time Bob receives the online message, we're dead
in the water.  If Alice is online, the clients could re-negotiate and then
re-send the messages since Bob went offline.  I think this somehow used to work
that way, but doesn't ATM.

-- 
Matthias Andree