Jabber (Google Talk) protocol improvements

[aekotra]

• Whenever I log in, an extra contact added to my contact list.  The contact is my Google username.  If I delete or hide the contact it always comes back on the next log in.  There doesn't seem to be any way to get rid of it...
  
  
• Google contacts never go "offline".  If the contact has Google Hangouts on their phone, they are shown to be perpetually "away" in Miranda.  In fact, Google users only come online when using the chat web interface in Gmail or Google+ but NOT when using the Hangouts app itself.
  
  There should be some way to set "show contact as offline if 'last seen' is longer than x minutes".

[AnrDaemon]

Whenever I log in, an extra contact added to my contact list.  The contact is my Google username.  If I delete or hide the contact it always comes back on the next log in.  There doesn't seem to be any way to get rid of it...

Options - Events - Ignore: Tick off the offending contact.
This is how XMPP works. And this behavior is sometimes very useful, i.e. to leave notes on your home system when you are on the go.
But it is indeed can be frustrating for people, who only use it from single place.

Google contacts never go "offline".  If the contact has Google Hangouts

This is a Hangouts issue, how it is translated by the Google into XMPP gateway. Nothing can be done about it. Sorry.

There should be some way to set "show contact as offline if 'last seen' is longer than x minutes".

"Last seen" is only updated when contact gone offline. If contact never go offline, … go figure.

[Wishmaster]

• Whenever I log in, an extra contact added to my contact list.  The contact is my Google username.  If I delete or hide the contact it always comes back on the next log in.  There doesn't seem to be any way to get rid of it...

It is propably GTalkExt, check settings here. Maybe GMailNotifier.

[aekotra]

Options - Events - Ignore: Tick off the offending contact.

I'm guessing you mean Options > Contacts > Ignore.  But yes, that's what I mean by 'hide'.  As soon as I log back in, the contact is re-checked.

It is propably GTalkExt, check settings here. Maybe GMailNotifier.

I don't have this installed.

"Last seen" is only updated when contact gone offline. If contact never go offline, … go figure.

For GTalk, "Last seen" is equivalent to "time contact last switched to online status".  For example, I have a contact who is online right now.  Hangouts reports her as "last seen 38min ago".  That's when she first came online.

For contacts that have not been online for a long time (perpetually away), 'last seen' is absent.

One of the effects of this issue has to do with MetaContacts.  The MetaContact will never be in an offline state if they have GTalk so it overrides any sub-contact you have set to "send offline". 

I'd just like to be able to set a contact as offline if their status is away and 'last seen' is old or absent.  I guess it's better suited to a separate plugin...

[Tomaso]

Some weeks ago, one of my Google contacts suddenly started to appear as being OFFLINE all the time.
..and just a couple of days ago, it happened to one of my other Google contacts as well.
For one of them (which I know uses Trillian), it helps to choose "Revoke authorization", then "Request authorisation"..
This instantly pops him back as being ONLINE (although he doesn't actually receive an authorization request).
..but after restarting Miranda NG, he's shown as OFFLINE again!
The trick doesn't seem to work with the other contact though (which I think is using the native app on his Android device).

The problem doesn't seem to be with Miranda NG or the Jabber plugin, but with Google itself.
..because when I tried logging on to gmail.com and enabling the chat feature, I encountered the same problem there!

I searched it up, and it looks like there's a lot of people that's having the same problem.
Couldn't find a working fix though.

Any solution or thoughs on this?

(Miranda NG x64 v0.95.4 / Jabber protocol v0.11.0.4)