Hi,

I'd just like to express how much I love messenger plus...

It has so many good features... and they're not gimicy things that hardly work, let alone do anything particularily useful - these are things that are simple for computer newbies to use... and still useful for more experienced computer people, as it has more stuff if you know what you're doing.

I've been a user of messenger plus for quite a while - my brother downloaded it when we used a shared computer, I was a little doubtful at first that he had downloaded a keylogger or something, but as I got to use Messenger Plus! I found out how really good it is, and went much further than my brother in finding out all those commands and it's full capacity.  I couldn't chat without it lol.

There's one thing that I think would make messenger plus much better though - more control.  I would love it if messenger plus had so many nifty commands like /away and /all and /run that you could virtually control entire messenger and lots of your computer from a chat window.

My favourites have got to be:
The Insulting game.

I've spent many hours mindlessly insulting all of my Msg Plus! friends... getting to as many as 7 insulting games going at once (using the handy tabbing feature for quick switching).  I am a great fan of Secret of Monkey Island... and beat everyone because I know the responses, lol.

While I'm talking about this feature, I'd like to suggest some improvements for it.  Why doesn't it appear on the commands list? (if there are more things like this, could someone tell me a comprehensive list of all the commands?).  I think there should be a better way to end it than to just say "I'm tired of arguing with you."... because that's no fun if you want to continue.  Maybe when you type /insult you should be able to see some settings before you actually insult the person - and maybe select your starting insult that way.  Another thing (not really needed) would be a scoreboard.

Chat Logging

I hate how Messenger does the message history and stuff, and I never remember to save conversations.

I have used chat logs many many times - and have seen them used many times to provide an accurate guide as to what was said, when it was said and any actions that happened in between.

Ping/Ping Pong

The /ping command has many uses for me, and is a really neat thing.

1.  It tells me if contacts have messenger plus, before I bombard them with things they cannot do/see.

2.  It tells me the network delay, and therefore how well my wireless network is going (at a rought guide).

3.  It is a source of entertainment, as I love tricking people into believing that there's something gone really wrong.  The way I do this is to send loads and I mean loads of /ping s and invite them to do the same.  Some time later, when the pinging has subsided and they have lost track of all the pings and pongs, I send this message.


Pong! [999sec]

It always gives me a good laugh when they explain to me that they just got something from 15 minutes ago.
~~~~~

There are also many other features which I use all the time, and pretty much take for granted.

I love Messenger Plus so much that although I've recieved a Live Messenger Beta invite... I'm not going to even install it, because I couldn't bear to be without messenger.  From what I've heard, Messenger Live is pretty good... and Messenger 7.5 is soooooooooo buggy... but I know that messenger plus is good... and isn't buggy.  Of course a way around this would be to also become a beta tester for Messenger Plus! Live... but I don't think that Patchou lets people beta test is just for asking.

Once someone, a good friend of mine told me that they had gotten rid of messenger plus because they thought it might be sending large packets which contain personal information, basically saying that messenger plus was probably spyware.  I don't believe them... and am still keeping messenger plus.  I thought about it for a bit, as I don't want spyware on my computer... but I decided that messenger plus was safe, and that it must've been something else that was sending these packets.  Either that or they had allowed messenger plus to send anonymous numerical statistics, lol.

While I'm talking about numerical statistics - so that people trust it a little more, is it possible for messenger plus to send a confirmation when it's about to send the statistics, and have an option to see what's being sent?

Well, I've come to these forums, and I think I'm going to look around a bit... had password problems as I registered this account 6 months ago or so and never used it, lol.  I'm a newbie now... but you never know, I may become a regular.

I'm just gunna say that I feel sorry for Patchou, who's recieved 300 emails asking to be a beta tester... I wonder how many forum PMs he has gotten.

Patchou, you've done some awesome work on messenger plus - and I simply cannot wait untill Messenger Plus! Live comes out.

thanks for reading my long post (curse you scim readers!)...
~ Themrb ~

About the insult game, the reason that it isn't on the features list is because it's a hidden feature, an "easter egg" as it were.

Thanks for all the support, I'm sure Patchou really appreciates it .

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Originally posted by themrb
There's one thing that I think would make messenger plus much better though - more control.  I would love it if messenger plus had so many nifty commands like /away and /all and /run that you could virtually control entire messenger and lots of your computer from a chat window.

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well, a lot of what you want will be possible with the new scripting system of Messenger Plus! Live... . Thanks for posting your ideas!

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Originally posted by themrb
Once someone, a good friend of mine told me that they had gotten rid of messenger plus because they thought it might be sending large packets which contain personal information, basically saying that messenger plus was probably spyware.  I don't believe them... and am still keeping messenger plus.  I thought about it for a bit, as I don't want spyware on my computer... but I decided that messenger plus was safe, and that it must've been something else that was sending these packets.  Either that or they had allowed messenger plus to send anonymous numerical statistics, lol

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Originally posted by Patchou
well, a lot of what you want will be possible with the new scripting system of Messenger Plus! Live... . Thanks for posting your ideas!

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Originally posted by ipab
Would be nice to see an expanse to the api though.

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Everything will be done through scripting. The old api will be removed as you can call your VB objects directly from the scripts and the scripts will give you like 20 times the power of the api. I'm currently making sure the scripting interface will be a great surprise for everyone.

That would be great. How much easier will it be to make plugins? I have some programming knowledge.

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Originally posted by linx05
How much easier will it be to make plugins?

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Originally posted by Patchou
Everything will be done through scripting. The old api will be removed as you can call your VB objects directly from the scripts and the scripts will give you like 20 times the power of the api. I'm currently making sure the scripting interface will be a great surprise for everyone.

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Originally posted by MenthiX

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Originally posted by linx05
How much easier will it be to make plugins?

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Indeed, does this mean people with almost no, or just a little coding skills could make those kind of scripts too?

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Originally posted by raceprouk
When you say objects, are they COM or .NET?

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COM's also a pain in the ass, but it is much more manageable than .NET.