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Ticket #5077 (closed defect: fixed)

Opened 2 years ago

Last modified 23 months ago

QQ message text and sender(Pidgin)'s nick all changed to: "(NULL)"

Reported by:	Med	Owned by:	seanegan
Milestone:	2.4.1	Component:	winpidgin (gtk)
Version:	2.4.0	Keywords:	NULL nick change
Cc:

Description

Using Pidgin for approx 1 year and just updated to 2.4.0
I can put up with this http://developer.pidgin.im/ticket/1902#comment:2...just...but the following had me revert to the last stable release (2.3.1) where the problem I'm reporting here does not exist.

Problems;

1. All messages sent are displayed as (NULL) on other end, ie: sent messages are displayed correctly only in sender's conversation window (see example below)

2. Pidgin nick changes to: (NULL)
Note: Nicks of Pidgin user(s) are changed and displayed as (NULL) in both Chinese QQ and Pidgin clients (see example below)

Example C+P'd from conversation log;

(12:23:58) TERI: (NULL)
(12:25:36) (NULL): Every message u send is "(NULL)"
(12:26:21) TERI: (NULL)
(12:26:34) (NULL): /:(
(12:27:15) TERI: (NULL)

Notes on above example;
* User TERI is using native QQ client
* User (NULL) is me using 2.4.0. My nick was changed to (NULL) upon installation of 2.4.0 without any input from myself

Additional notes (general);
* Disabling all plugins (then restarting client) had no effect
* Reinstallation of 2.3.1 confirms bug is in the latest release of 2.4.0

To be honest, I know that the userbase of QQ must be small (ie: only Westerners using it and we are mostly in China, HK and Taiwan) but how on earth could this be allowed to be in a stable release?! Don't you guys check all protocols and make sure that at least common functionality is operating?

This is the last straw for me as I can't even see half of my QQ contacts when they are online (Bug #1902 as mentioned above). I will surely not be spreading the word about Pidgin and encouraging others to use it as a replacement for Chinese QQ. Thank you for the free application but this is just ridiculous...QQ is completely unusable...there are still many other bugs that haven't been fixed for months (such as it crashing whenever FTP is initiated) and so I will unfortunately have to install their ad-ridden & malware-infested crap... :-(

Change History

Changed 2 years ago by ssb22

For what it's worth, another workaround is to patch the binary plugins\qq.dll and change GB18030 to GB2312 + null byte. (Can do this in Python: dat=open("qq.dll","rb").read().replace("GB18030","GB2312"+chr(0)) ; open("qq.dll","wb").write(dat)

This works because the buggy GTK has no problem with the GB2312 character set, only the GB18030 character set. GB2312 is a subset of GB18030. In practice you will probably be using characters that are in GB2312 (unless you use QQ to write Traditional Chinese or other languages). This works for me and saves me from having to mess around with installing different GTK versions etc.

Changed 2 years ago by Med

How about the devs and people working on it have the courtesy to;

a) inform all users that it will render their QQ useless upon every install/update. They could at least try...but no, instead they act in an unprofessional manner and don't inform a soul. In response to your call to read the full ticket, I have read the full ticket but, as I have said already, these 'fixes' are unknown to 99% of the people who use the protocol
b) mark this ticket as unresolved. It is not unresolved! In fact it is made even harder to find by those people experiencing problems since this ticket is incorrectly marked

As far as I'm concerned many people have been polite and patient enough - including me and I am the one who reported this bug. Like I said, if it isn't going to be fixed in the near future either drop the protocol (because it is a critical bug and renders QQ completely useless) or have the decency not to piss off thousands of users - most of who will not even come to these forums to search for a solution, let alone be able to implement commands in Python to fix it. It's a simple matter that requires 30 seconds of thought and action. seanegan needs to add "If you use the QQ protocol please either;
1. see the following link (include link to this ticket) on how to keep your QQ running after updating Pidgin, or
2. reinstall GTK+ 2.12.1 Rev B (which is available here {link}) after you update"

...into the changelog popup. Now how hard can it be to act professionally, do the right thing and inform everyone? Not hard at all. I rest my case

follow-ups: ↓ 19 ↓ 20 Changed 2 years ago by datallah

Crying about it doesn't improve the situation. Your attitude makes me less inclined to want to spend my limited time to help you.

It is unfortunate that we don't distribute a newer GTK+ version yet, but there are other reasons for that. Hopefully that will change soon. Until then you have 2 simple options (summarized for your convenience):

Install GTK+ 2.12.1 and don't upgrade GTK+ when you install Pidgin (there is a checkbox in the installer).
Use the binary patch solution mentioned above by ssb22 every time you update if you want to use a newer GTK+.

in reply to: ↑ 18 Changed 2 years ago by Med

Replying to datallah:

Crying about it doesn't improve the situation.

First of all, there is no need to accuse someone of doing something they're quite obviously not. It was a blatant exaggeration. You know it and you're certainly not going to get away with it. Seems you were just looking for an excuse to attack me just because I have the guts to complain after 6 months and many updates only to find out every single time that there's no notification this critical bug still exists. If you do in fact think I am 'crying' then I can happily point you to forums and posts where there is real 'crying'...

Second, you are wrong. Complaining about it will get attention and hopefully the attention it deserves so something will finally be done about it, ie: everyone notified and informed of how to get their QQ operational again.

Replying to datallah:

Your attitude makes me less inclined to want to spend my limited time to help you

How hypocritical. I and thousands of others have patiently waited 6 months and multiple betas and finals to be released and still the discourtesy continues. Just because you are a power user, in the know and are aware of how to fix it doesn't mean you should ignore your userbase and not treat them with the respect they deserve - free/open source or not. That, my friend, is attitude. A lousy attitude that gets you nowhere, not to mention one that loses you the respect of others. I also cannot understand how you can happily sit there and ignore that this ticket is going to remain unread by the minute percentage of QQ protocol users that happen to stumble upon these tickets - unless of course one of you decides to do the right thing and reopen it. I cannot understand that nor why you seem to be oblivious to and unconcerned with the fact, now mentioning it for the third (or is it the fourth) time, that thousands of mainstream Pidgin users are being led astray and shown zero consideration for by the fact that there has been, and still is, no warning whatsoever of the existence of this bug in the updates/changelogs. Nor is there any solution or link to this thread for them. How sad. And what's even worse is you sit there and act like nothing is wrong. It's pathetic.

I only ask on behalf of myself and the many other friends I have (also living in Asia and who want to continue using Pidgin as an alternative to that malware-infested Chinese crap that the original QQ client is), to be able to be given the common courtesy (again, something I have repeated for the third time and something that has flown way above your head) and be told that;
1. the problem has not been fixed
2. they will not be able to use the QQ protocol should they install any standard so-called 'stable' release, which, in my and many others' opinion, shouldn't be finals at all since...
3. they render one of its supported protocols useless - again, another thing I've had to repeat and that has gone in one ear and straight out the other. And finally,
4. there is a solution lying hidden in a closed ticket on http://developer.pidgin.im

If you think that what I'm asking is unreasonable then I'll be more than happy to put it into a poll on a website forum that I've been moderating for the last 4 1/2 years. There are currently 17,000+ (non-geek) members. Let's see what they say, shall we? I dare you to take me up on the offer. No doubt I will have called your bluff and some form of attack or flaming could occur as a result. Maybe...maybe not...but I've seen it all, and what I can tell you from my experience moderating is that every single minute of every day there are people who come into a help thread with the mindset that everyone is as good with computers as they are. They subconsciously think that everyone can run commandline scripts at will on their *nix boxes and find and fix problems in a jiffy instead of the hours of googling that normal users take to get the same thing done. It's almost as bad as the other end of the scale when Mac users pop in with their 2c worth and say, "Get a Mac. They just work".
It's no surprise in the least to see your response - a response that is so naive and with a perspective totally alienated from your average computer user that it doesn't even begin to take into account the fact that more than 90% of people run Windows while the remainder - usually 5% or less - are running Linux/Unix or Mac. Well, matey, wake up. What you have conveniently left out of your poor excuse for a rebuttle is that most people running Pidgin are Windows users who, and it's obvious you need to be reminded of these points;

a) have very limited computer skills and can pretty much point and click only

b) have limited time and as a consequence are not prepared nor willing to spend hours googling for solutions that they shouldn't have to be googling for (not that they know how to properly define search terms in the first place)

And need I remind you, again *yawn*, that all this would be unnecessary if a little simple courtesy was extended to the demographic that makes up more than 90% of your userbase, ie: notification of the bug and the temporary fix.

It's plain to see that you are of the *nix breed that is, in all likelihood, proficient with running most of your apps GUI-less via commandline switches over SSH from a remote server...and act like everyone else is as skilled as you are and has the knowledge, perseverance and time on their hands to search the net for the answers - in this case half-hidden answers - to their problems. The fact that they have to do that when a couple of lines inserted into the changelogs could prevent it along with preventing the hours of wasted time and frustration for these average users is, again, beyond you and it's very clear that you couldn't care less about it. You or anyone else hasn't mentioned it and I'm the only one that has...and I get crap for it. It's also apparent that you don't use QQ on Pidgin. If you do then we can all see that you most definitely couldn't care less about the hassle and frustration that thousands of other, less skilled users than yourself, are experiencing. Hassle and frustration caused by the lack of info regarding this bug.

As I have already mentioned, you are most likely intelligent and skilled (that's not a pisstake, BTW) and good for you mate, but just because you can do it doesn't mean that most others can! Really, sometimes you people need a good dose of reality. And this all stems from a simple lack of netiquette - netiquette that has unfortunately been completely absent in this case. I'm sorry to say it but it is true. One could argue that I was somewhat rude and lacked said etiquette and yes, I admit it...but I had just cause due to 6 months of being pissed around...installing, reinstalling and educating others on how to do it. Again, something you don't have to deal with with Pidgin because you are here every day and no doubt have the skill to implement whatever patch/script that may be available to you to fix whatever problems you have. Sorry to remind you again, but as I said before: everybody is not as fortunate as you are. And whether they have to do a patch or reinstall with GTK+ 2.12.1 is irrelevant. The vast majority don't even know that a solution exists. If you can't or don't fix it immediately then that's fine but at least have the common decency to inform your userbase that there is a temporary solution. THAT IS MY POINT

In the last year alone I have introduced Pidgin to more than 30 others and since this bug has been plaguing the so-called stable releases for the last 6 months I have helped more than 10 of them get around this problem and keep their QQ running. Whose responsibility is this? Mine? And just because I vocalize my disappointment after 6 months of silence doesn't entitle you to look down upon me, spout off on tangents and miss my points entirely - something I've seen a million times before on help forums. The fact that you didn't rebut any of my main points just shows you that you're biased and have no leg to stand on with your arguments. Grow up, please. And I have been aware of the solution since bokamba posted it, thank you very much. You should know that I am permanently added to the cc list but by going OT and pretending to be helpful by posting a summary for me like I'm a beginner can only be considered condescending and only served to make yourself look...well...condescending.

And, if you do decide to grow up and reply without attacking, ridiculing or badmouthing me in one form or another, then perhaps you could do something constructive to address the issues at hand (since you have elevated privs on this forum). You could start by addressing the reasons why I am complaining (see points 1-4 above)

Replying to bokamba:

Med doesn't represent me.

I can see that. However, someone has to represent the thousands of n00bs that are left uninformed and their QQ rendered useless don;t you think? Or shall we just continue to leave them in the dark? So far I am the only one to suggest something useful as far as this goes and I am perfectly justified to suggest that the devs either drop QQ support (for the reason I have stated numerous times already) or inform everyone what to do in order to keep it running.

follow-up: ↓ 22 Changed 2 years ago by ssb22

Please don't drop QQ support. I'm legally blind, and Pidgin is the only way I can get onto the QQ network and talk to those of my Chinese friends who don't know how to switch networks. Because of my disability, there is no way I can use Tencent's official client. No other open-source approach works as well as Pidgin. (Miranda IM keeps silently dropping messages and/or crashing.) Yes Pidgin has its faults (there's this one, and there are problems getting "set your personal information" to work properly), but at least it gets the messages through, and that's very valuable. It would be a real shame if QQ support were dropped over this. Please don't cut my lifeline!

I agree that something needs to be done to help people who can't google for this ticket and run a Python script. If I had the skills to do it, I'd write a patch that checks for messages that say "(NULL)", and if it finds them then add the text "this might be due to bug 5077" with the link. I did something similar in my language-practice program Gradint (which won't display Chinese characters properly on certain versions of Mac OS; I ended up putting in a hack that detects this situation and adds an explanatory message). I'm sorry that I'm not in a position to be able to figure out how to do it for Pidgin.

With all due respect for campaigners speaking up for people who need to be spoken up for, I fear that telling developers "either do it properly or don't do it at all" may make them think "why do we bother" and opt to drop it altogether. That would be a shame, because at least Pidgin *is* useful to some people even though it doesn't work for everybody. I wouldn't want my country's blind federation to shut down just because their white sticks are difficult to assemble. Yes it would be nice if they could better inform people, but I beg to differ with the "or else drop it" part.

If the developers are not in a position to help, then perhaps that website with lots of QQ users (the one that was suggesting doing the poll) could put up a page explaining the solution, to give it more publicity than this ticket. It might even be possible to temporarily create a Pidgin "package" that includes the QQ patch, and offer it for download on that website. Or at least it might be possible to create an "installer" for a modified QQ.dll (get one of those "self-extracting .exe" tools like 7-Zip or AlZip?, and persuade it to always extract the file to the C:\Program Files\Pidgin\Plugins or whatever it was - sorry I'm not on Windows at the moment so I can't check) and write a nice explanation that you need to download and run this .exe file after installing or updating Pidgin. I'm not very good at doing this kind of thing well; it needs someone who has experience in packaging things up so they "just work".

Meanwhile, this ticket is the first hit on a Google search for "pidgin qq null", so at least people who can google will find it straight away. Not perfect I know, but at least it's here, and please don't tell the developers to shut the whole thing down just because they can't make it even better.

in reply to: ↑ 26 Changed 23 months ago by slacka

Replying to bokamba:

Replying to slacka:

I can confirm that this is still a bug with Pidgin 2.5.1 for Windows. All messages sent and received say (null). QQ support is broken and unusable in this release.

Did you try the new version of GTK+ that datallah linked to in the comment above? I am using Pidgin 2.5.1 in Windows XP with GTK+ 2.12.12 and QQ works fine.

Thanks. Yes, I did try downgrading to the old GTK+ 2.12.12 version, and yes it did fix the (null) issue in QQ. However, now I have new GUI issues with pidgin. Sometimes, I will click on a contact, and the wrong one opens up. Pidgin has also crashed a few times since I downgraded the GTK+.

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Ticket #5077 (closed defect: fixed)

QQ message text and sender(Pidgin)'s nick all changed to: "(NULL)"

Description

Change History

Changed 2 years ago by bokamba

Changed 2 years ago by rosbicn

Changed 2 years ago by Ribo

Changed 2 years ago by tbyu

Changed 2 years ago by moo

Changed 2 years ago by moo

Changed 2 years ago by Sim-on

Changed 2 years ago by manphiz

Changed 2 years ago by manphiz

Changed 2 years ago by qvdm

Changed 2 years ago by bokamba

Changed 2 years ago by datallah

Changed 2 years ago by ssb22

follow-up: ↓ 15 Changed 2 years ago by Med

in reply to: ↑ 14 Changed 2 years ago by Sim-on

Changed 2 years ago by Med

Changed 2 years ago by Med

follow-ups: ↓ 19 ↓ 20 Changed 2 years ago by datallah

in reply to: ↑ 18 Changed 2 years ago by bokamba

in reply to: ↑ 18 Changed 2 years ago by Med

follow-up: ↓ 22 Changed 2 years ago by ssb22

in reply to: ↑ 21 Changed 2 years ago by Med

Changed 2 years ago by datallah

Changed 2 years ago by datallah

follow-up: ↓ 26 Changed 23 months ago by slacka

in reply to: ↑ 25 ; follow-up: ↓ 28 Changed 23 months ago by bokamba

Changed 23 months ago by datallah

in reply to: ↑ 26 Changed 23 months ago by slacka

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