Shoutbox

I have MSN set to display the messages I received while offline when I login. I also have Msg+ set to log all messages received.

Both features work but in the history generated by Msg+, the timestamp before the offline messages is set to the time at which I logged in, not the time when the messages were sent (which is displayed just fine in the chat window).

As far as I know this bug has always been present in Msg+. It shouldn't be hard to fix since the "right" timestamp is received along with the offline messages.

It is not a 'bug' per say and as such might not be as easy to fix (there is actually nothing to fix) as you might think.

The offline messages you see in a chat window are put there by Messenger just as if it was a normal message. So, in essence there is no difference between such 'offline' messages and other messages you receive in real time.

As such, Messenger Plus! does not (can not) detect if it was an offline message or a normal message, it simply sees that there is a new message in the chat and will log it like that with the current timestamp at that moment.

--

To put it in another way:

Messenger recieves the list of offline messages and it is Messenger which decides how to present them to you. In your case you have set it up so that Messenger will create a new chatwindow and fill that chatwindow with the offline messages.

Messenger Plus! does not receive messages directly (this is extremely important to note! - it does not 'sniff' the network). It simply looks if something has been put in a chat window. It doesn't care about the content of those messages.

So, if something is put in a chat window (either by Messenger, or by some other process for that matter), Plus! will log it with the timestamp of the moment it was put in the chat window. Because as far as Plus! is concearned, it was a new message only entered at that moment.

--

Also remember that timestamps in chat windows can be turned off and that they completely depend on your local. So, that's another reason why Plus! can not/must not depend on timestamps in chat windows.

--

Bottom line is that it is not a bug, it is by design that Plus! doesn't differentiate between offline or realtime messages..

However, maybe it could be made into a feature that it does. But it will probably not be very easy to do as this might require a complete change in how Plus! detect messages.

Thanks for your answer, it makes a lot of sense.

I actually thought Msg+ was sniffing the network and since the timestamps can be hidden I understand there is no easy fix.

I still wish there could be an (ugly) solution consisting in using the displayed timestamps whenever possible.

I'll stick with the standard msn log for the time being I guess.