diff -ru telepathy-idle-0.1.2/src/idle-connection.c telepathy-idle-ted/src/idle-connection.c
--- telepathy-idle-0.1.2/src/idle-connection.c	2007-09-25 15:25:58.000000000 -0400
+++ telepathy-idle-ted/src/idle-connection.c	2008-02-25 12:29:45.000000000 -0500
@@ -716,11 +716,36 @@
 	return IDLE_PARSER_HANDLER_RESULT_NOT_HANDLED;
 }
 
+#define IDLE_NICK_APPEND_CHAR "_"
+
 static IdleParserHandlerResult _nickname_in_use_handler(IdleParser *parser, IdleParserMessageCode code, GValueArray *args, gpointer user_data) {
 	IdleConnection *conn = IDLE_CONNECTION(user_data);
+	IdleConnectionPrivate *priv = IDLE_CONNECTION_GET_PRIVATE(conn);
 
-	if (conn->parent.status == TP_CONNECTION_STATUS_CONNECTING)
-		connection_connect_cb(conn, FALSE, TP_CONNECTION_STATUS_REASON_NAME_IN_USE);
+	if (conn->parent.status == TP_CONNECTION_STATUS_CONNECTING) {
+		/*  Code to make it so that nicks don't collide.  If the nick
+		 *  collides and we're trying to connect we'll keep appending on
+		 *  IDLE_NICK_APPEND_CHAR until the nick becomes half of the full
+		 *  message length allowed.  Half because, well, if your nick is
+		 *  so long that you can't write messages it isn't very useful.
+		 *  Basically we send another nick command, and this call back
+		 *  is called if it returns an error also.
+		 */
+		if (strlen(priv->nickname) + strlen(IDLE_NICK_APPEND_CHAR) + strlen("NICK ") > IRC_MSG_MAXLEN / 2) {
+			connection_connect_cb(conn, FALSE, TP_CONNECTION_STATUS_REASON_NAME_IN_USE);
+		} else {
+			gchar * newnick = g_strdup_printf("%s%s", priv->nickname, IDLE_NICK_APPEND_CHAR);
+			GValue nickparam;
+			g_value_init(&nickparam, G_TYPE_STRING);
+			g_value_set_string(&nickparam, newnick);
+			idle_connection_set_property(conn, PROP_NICKNAME, &nickparam, NULL);
+			g_free(newnick);
+
+			gchar msg[IRC_MSG_MAXLEN+1];
+			g_snprintf(msg, IRC_MSG_MAXLEN+1, "NICK %s", priv->nickname);
+			send_irc_cmd(conn, msg);
+		}
+	}
 
 	return IDLE_PARSER_HANDLER_RESULT_HANDLED;
 }