Got a proposal for an additional MUC functionality: an "ignore user" command. After selecting someone's nick and choosing "ignore that person", there should not be visible any chat-text written by that person anymore (and - if it's technically possible - ignored person shouldn't have any possibility to call me using "private chat" option) - until I select his/her nick and choose "ignore" again (in such situation it will mean: "stop ignoring"). Nick of such person could be then marked with reversed colours.
It can be useful f.e. for disposing of the texts written by the flooders (or by any other chat-member I don't like). Shouldn't be especially hard to implement.
You can already treat troll
You can already treat trolls in MUC (JEP-0045: Multi-User Chat) the way they deserve. It's a server side feature, so there is no need for clients to implement anything else, and so there is no need to use Tkabber with this possible patch to get ride of trolls. If you setup you chatroom as moderated, and make all participants members, except the troll, then the troll cannot speak. It worked for two trolls some months ago :) .
Anyway, the 'ignore participant' feature should be nice in MUC for trolls when you don't want them to know they are being ignored. You proposed a client-side implementation, requiring every client to implement it. I'd prefer a server side implementation, allowing any particpant, not only those using Tkabber, to benefit from it. A room administrator already can: ban, kick, devoice and de-member a participant. So your feature should be: ignore. The chatroom will receive this participant messages, but will not send them to any other participant, and block all private messages he sends to other participants.
And finally, of course having a Tkabber feature 'ignore chatroom participant' would be nice, even when MUC implements ignore.
Yes, you're right - but...
> If you setup you chatroom as moderated, and make all participants
> members, except the troll, then the troll cannot speak
...but consider, please - what if I'm just one of the other participants? It'll be quite easier to me just to use such setting rather than call moderator, explain the situation and so on. Especially, when there aren't any moderators...
> I'd prefer a server side implementation, allowing any particpant,
> not only those using Tkabber, to benefit from it
Why not? Could be just one more reason to switch to Tkabber... ;) Besides, we don't know, when it can be implemented as "server side extension" - but it can be implemented now as "client-side"...
> ignore. The chatroom will receive this participant messages, but
> will not send them to any other participant, and block all private
> messages he sends to other participants.
But in such way it will still depend on the room-admin action. In the way I propose - it'll be participant's personal choice - to whom he want to listen, and to whom he doesn't want.
It's not quite my original idea - it's implemented exactly as client-side extension in WP-Kontakt (http://kontakt.wp.pl/) - and it's really useful feature, when chatting in unmoderated chatrooms. F.e. I can easily dispose of every advertisements like "Hurry! Go to http://somesite.somewhere/"...
kind of reason
I think that user has some reason at some degree. I think that even the IRC protocol implements both features, the serverside "moderated rooms" and the clientside "ignore user" command (I think that both mIRC and Xchat have it).
But maybe is not the best way to implement that feature as a part of the main code, but as a plug-in/add-on/extension.