Shoutbox

ok, I dunno if anyone has noticed this, but when I click on the little icon on the left of someone's name in the contact list, and their contact card pops up, you see their display picture if they're online....but sometimes when I do that for someone who's status is OFFline, i still see their display picture...shouldn't the display picture NOT show on their contact card b/c they're offline?

not with WLM, this isn't plus! doing it. it is a new 'feature' built into messenger itself. just like. sometime after you sign off then back on some display pictures are still there. it's like a cache of them stored on your PC. it isn't a bug atall so no need to worry

quote:

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Originally posted by DJKAL
not with WLM

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not with any messenger actually....

The display pictures of your contacts have always been cached, if MSN Messenger 6 for example had something like a contact card, you would also see their display picture, even if they are offline...

akyafr, The reason is as DJKAL said, each time you view a display picture (contact card, conversation, etc) it gets downloaded and stored in the cache so it can be used later on again and it doesn't need to be (slowly) downloaded. The benefit of this cache is also that you can see their display picture if they are offline (it only isn't updated in case the contact got a new picture... since they are offline of course).

The Plus! contact information panel works in exactly the same way since it retrieves its display picture from messenger...

It is indeed not a bug, it actually is a feature

PS: all this caching-business is also the reason why certain programs can "steal" the contact display picture so to speak. They actually don't steal a thing, they just copy the cached, and thus already present on your computer, display picture. In the Plus! contact information panel this is done the same with the link "copy display picture" (only it is better worded, as nothing is "stolen" at all, just copied).