Description of problem: I tried to use empathy as an IRC client. I´m typically on three irc networks at any given time. I painstakingly entered in the 20 or so channels per network that I typically idle in as auto-join favorites. At any one time, it is only possible to open channels on one single IRC network. I tried multiple times and methods to try to join a channel from network a and a channel from network b at the same time. What happens is the first channel you try to open, you can only ever open additional channels from the network the first channel is in. if you try to open channels from any other network, nothing happens.... and empathy gives a message in the log saying it can´t join because it´s already joined. except.... it hasn´t - or if it has, there is no window to actually view it. back to xchat :( Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): empathy-2.28.1.1-3.fc12.x86_64
It's possible to have multiple networks & multiple channels open in empathy (though I do admit it's not particularly pretty or convienant to do). What you need to do is add multiple irc accounts in Empathy (for example one for Gimpnet & one for FreeNode under different account names). Then you open the channels you want to use by going to Room->Join, and then select account you wish you use, and enter the room (for example FreeNode server, and #fedora-devel). Once you have open a channel, go the chat window for the channel and select Conversation->Favorite Chatroom. Once you've done this for all the channels you wish to use you can go main windows menu item Room->Manage Favorites to cofigure which one you wish to auto connect to. Hopefully, I've explained it clearly enough for you to at least use and if I haven't, ping me on IRC and I'll walk you through it. Now with all that being said Empathy (or in my view any IM client) definitely doesn't make it a pleasant experience to use IRC with, and upstream could really use some help with the usability of it's IRC support.
Okay, so I was able to join channels across multiple IRC accounts now. The problem wasn't my IRC account name, but one of my IRC accounts did not have the 'enabled' check box checked off. This is bad. If an account happens to be disabled and I indicate I want to join a channel/room affiliated with it, it ignores my request. I would rather one of the following to happen instead, in order of most-desired to least-desired behavior: Account is disabled, user indicates they want to join a room affiliated with that account: - Account is enabled automatically and user is allowed to join the room. - Dialog pops up saying, 'That room is affiliated with disabled account foo. Would you like to enable the account and join the room now? (Yes / No)' - Dialog pops up saying, 'That room is affiliated with disabled account foo. You need to go to your account preferences and re-enable the account before you can visit this room.'