AutoProfile is an extension to the Pidgin chat client.
that allows users to create customized away messages and profiles using dynamic
"components" that automatically update on a regular basis. Generated text can
include song names from XMMS/Winamp/iTunes, fortune quotes, computer uptime,
the contents of a Web page or a text file, the output of a program, and
timestamps.
The plugin comes complete with a graphical preference system that covers
a wide range of options and lets users choose exactly how they want their
profiles to behave. The code is Open Source (licensed
under the GPL) and
designed such that it is extremely easy for users to extend the
capabilities of this plugin. A SourceForge project page is available.
What's new
- [2008-10-24] Farewell, Autoprofile
- As of today, I am marking AutoProfile as officially dead.
Thanks to the thousands of you who used it- to this day I still can't believe what started out as a small experimental project grew to 25,000 downloads!
I had lunch today with some of the Pidgin developers, and we easily agreed that AutoProfile's time has come. It's code will be split into individual plugins, and we will focus our efforts on Pidgin itself.
For more details, read the FAQ on this page.
Thanks for everything,
Casey Ho
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Will AutoProfile be updated?
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AutoProfile has been discontinued as of late 2008. The core of AutoProfile will still be used in other related plugins, but AutoProfile itself is now dead.
- How will I be able to get the functionality in AutoProfile?
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The source code will remain available! Also, bits and pieces of it will be used in new plugins.
- I need to contact you
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Use IRC to connect to #guifications on Freenode. Ask a question, and someone will either try to help you out or will forward to the message appropriately.
- Why discontinue AutoProfile?
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It's been a great run- AutoProfile has received plenty of rave reviews over the years. Long story short, the original reasons for creating AutoProfile are now outdated.
First off, AutoProfile was designed to make it easy to set your status and profile in one place. Gaim (now Pidgin) was terrible for this at the time. Pidgin's UI has improved to the point where this is no longer an issue.
Secondly, I wanted to create a system to easily post updates about your life and your interests in your profile- without having to manually tweak it everyday. This has been superseded by a large degree by some of the features provided by social networks today. RSS Feeds? Now integrated into most social networks. Songs played on iTunes? Available on last.fm. Stats on who you talk to? Implicitly provided by comments posted on profile pages.
Lastly, I wanted a system to combine all the previous components into one universal place. Since most components are now outdated in various degrees, I don't expect most users to really need it asides for one or two components. The interface to manage all these components was confusing to users, and AutoProfile would be better off without it. It would be easier to start from scratch and write each component as a separate plugin.
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