Shoutbox

Hi, I've recently upgraded to Live Messenger 2011 along with Messenger Plus 5.00, and I love the many improvements, especially the embedded Facebook Chat functionality.

One thing I'm not so keen on, however, is the way that Messenger Plus records the chat logs from Facebook Chat conversations in a different folder than the chat logs from Messenger conversations.

Specifically: in my Chat Logging settings in Messenger Plus, I've got "organize in one folder per contact", which is how I've always done it for years. Since the upgrade, I've noticed that I still have the usual chat log folders which equate to the email address of each contact, but I now also have new chat log folders called "FB - John Smith" for example, for my Facebook contacts.

Could we have, as a new option for Messenger Plus in the future, the ability to save the Facebook Chat logs in the same folder (and as part of the same HTML files) as the Messenger logs, for those contacts who are on both Facebook and Messenger? This would make it a lot easier to find old chat logs, because currently, I have to search through two separate folders and two separate sets of HTML files to find a particular conversation with a particular contact.

After all, Messenger itself is able to "know" that a FB contact is the same person as a Messenger contact, based on their email address, and thus display that person as a single entry in my Messenger contacts list. So why not Messenger Plus also "knowing" the same thing?!

Cheers,
Jeremy

Messenger Plus! chat logging should separate the chat logs with contacts given the Interface used to communicate with them. Your Windows Live Messenger, if Facebook service is connected, should display both contacts (possibly divided over different categories in the contact list), only displaying a contact on-line on one network alone if said person is off-line on the other network.

Furthermore, Windows Live Messenger does not read a Facebook contacts' e-mail address unless their respective Windows Live account is also in your contact list, so Messenger Plus! wouldn't comfortably be able to separate Facebook contacts by means of e-mail address. Perhaps by profile name, which would work out quite buggy, or a custom set-up where you can manually enter a Facebook contact to be linked with their respective Windows Live account.

Either way, try to pay attention which interface is used when you chat with a contact; this should have a direct effect on which chat logs are used.

I'm not sure I agree. WLM 2011 definitely does have the ability to "know" that a FB contact is the same person as an existing WLM contact, and display it in the contact list as a single entity rather than as two entities. Regardless of whether the person is online using WLM or FB, they will appear as "online" in my contacts list. WLM even knows that a FB contact is the same person as a WLM contact when their respective email addresses (FB email and WLM email) are different! I'm not sure how WLM knows they are the same person - maybe it's based on their name, I dunno - but it somehow does, and they are always shown as just one contact entity in the contacts list.

Therefore, if WLM "knows" they are one person, even though they're using two networks, I see no reason why Messenger Plus! can't also "know" this, and record all of their conversations in a single logfile, regardless of the network they're using.

The suggestion to pay attention to which interface is used when chatting doesn't help with the problem here - I have no control over which network my friends use, and therefore no control over which logfile their conversation gets logged into.

The reason for wanting their conversations all in the same logfile location (regardless of network) is to make the future searching of logfiles easier - if I want to look up a conversation I remember having with a friend three months ago, it's a big inconvenience if I have to search through two sets of logfiles in different locations, rather than just one set.

Cheers,
Jeremy

BTW, should I post this in the MsgPlus! General Talk forum in order to make it a suggestion for the developers?

quote:

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Originally posted by KiwiDude
Therefore, if WLM "knows" they are one person, even though they're using two networks, I see no reason why Messenger Plus! can't also "know" this, and record all of their conversations in a single logfile, regardless of the network they're using.

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That is certainly not automatically the case!
It is not because WLM knows the difference that Plus! automatically does too. Stuff like that must be 'grabbed' from WLM. But WLM does not have buid in methods to support addons. This means that it is by no means straightforward that addons like Plus! know the same thing as WLM internally does, not to mention that there have been (and still are) bugs in WLM, which a user doesn't see, but which make it so that addons like Plus! can not detect stuff in a reliable way.

Bottom line, don't assume that addons or other unofficial tools can do everything because it seems logic or straightforward because WLM does it.

I'm not saying it is impossible for Plus! to know though, just saying you need to remember that it is by no means straightforward.

Neither is the suggestion to combine FB and WLM logs in one file a straightforward one. Many different things need to be considered (like having a FB and WLM conversation at the same time with the same contact, etc). As such, I personally don't like combining different styles/types of logs into one file, but rather want to see them seperate (albight in the same folder).

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quote:

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Originally posted by KiwiDude
BTW, should I post this in the MsgPlus! General Talk forum in order to make it a suggestion for the developers?

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No, never repost threads or posts. Instead report the thread to be moved to the appropiate forum by clicking on the 'report' button underneath your first post.

Okay, I understand your point, that it's not as straightforward as I might have thought. Perhaps I should still move this thread to the other forum so the right people can see it as a suggestion?

Is it even possible to have a conversation on both FB and WLM at the same time with the same contact? It isn't on my WLM. If I double-click on an online contact to initiate a conversation window, and they happen to be online via both FB and WLM at the same time, then my WLM will default to chatting over WLM first, and not use FB. I'm not aware of any way to open up a second chat window with the same person at the same time, that uses the FB network instead.

In any case, what I favour is having more options for the user, so that those of us who want combined logfiles across networks (as I'm suggesting) can check a box to enable that, and those who want their logfiles kept separate (as you do) can uncheck a box to leave it that way. Then everyone's happy. Much like how we already have some good options for how Plus! manages the logfiles right now.

quote:

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Originally posted by KiwiDude

Is it even possible to have a conversation on both FB and WLM at the same time with the same contact? It isn't on my WLM. If I double-click on an online contact to initiate a conversation window, and they happen to be online via both FB and WLM at the same time, then my WLM will default to chatting over WLM first, and not use FB. I'm not aware of any way to open up a second chat window with the same person at the same time, that uses the FB network instead.

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To your initial question I am obliged to answer "Yes" straight away based upon recent experience. (FaceBook and Windows Live are two separate interfaces. However at the moment I'm unable to test the specifics of these functions myself. If you've added the same person as both a Facebook and Windows Live Messenger contact, you should be able to see them "online" twice, if not in the "Online" section of your Contact List, you should still see this contact as a Facebook-contact in the "Facebook" section.

Interesting. That's definitely not how it works on mine. I already had several existing WLM contacts when I was using WLM 2009, and then I upgraded to 2011 which gave me the FB integration. I didn't manually add any FB contacts myself - in fact I don't think it's possible to manually add individual FB contacts - when the FB integration is enabled, then *all* of your FB contacts get added to the WLM contacts list, inside the "Facebook" category there, and you can't delete any of them. It's all or nothing.

WLM then automatically, somehow, "matched" my existing WLM contacts with their FB equivalents, for those contacts who were also my FB friends. So now, if I hover my mouse over any contact in my list, the pop-up box appears and shows me which networks that contact uses (not which networks they are currently online with, but which networks they are registered with). For those friends using both networks, the pop-up box says "Networks: Windows Live, Facebook".

Note that this is also the case when I hover my mouse over any contact inside the Facebook category list. In other words, if I look at my dual-network friends inside the Facebook category list, they still appear there as using both networks, via the pop-up box. They never appear as Facebook-only contacts. And double-clicking on them to initiate a conversation will always give preference to chatting via the WLM network, if the contact is online with both networks at once.

The point is that my WLM never separates the two networks, in terms of how my contacts use them. They are always combined into the same contact "entity" in my list, for those friends who use both networks.

is there a way to only save facebook log files ? I know i can select them one-by-one but i want to generally only save log files for facebook users. For normal msn users i always used msn messengers log-saving and i want to keep doing so.

Thanks

quote:

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Originally posted by zakazak
is there a way to only save facebook log files ? I know i can select them one-by-one but i want to generally only save log files for facebook users. For normal msn users i always used msn messengers log-saving and i want to keep doing so.

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nope, not possible.