I really did try to google this one, but apparently I don't know the right question...
I have my own jabber server running on ejabberd. It is corporate server where I manage contacts, so I'm sure everyone have full name set in their vCards and other fields are empty.
What's bothering me is when user texts someone in his roster, his nick is displayed in this hideous way:
[email protected]/36694788191361948416825289: test message
Although when someone text back, his name is displayed as full name (as set in his vCard).
Described behavior is in Pidgin, I also tried Gajim where I learned that the numbers might mean some "location" ("Zdroj" in Czech). In conversation history Gajim uses full name from vCard, but the heading of the conversation window is still:
martin.lukes/36694788191361948416825289
This led me to thinking that it will be something in ejabberd settings, but I can't find out what.
Ok, Flow's answer pushed me in right direction.
If you want to get rid of random numbers generated by server, set your Resource (between Domain and Password in Account settings). But be advised that it will still leave you with
Better yet, set your Local alias in Account settings which will use this instead of anything mentioned above. Although I don't understand why isn't Pidgin automatically use fields from vCard (Full name, Name, Surname) if Local alias is empty. I will try to find if there is filed a bug and file it if isn't.