Rely on xmlnode_insert_data to call strlen on a bunch of MSN status strings. This has the side-effect of not triggering g_return_if_fail(length != 0) in xmlnode_insert_data when you update your buddy icon and don't have a status message, in which case msn_build_psm used to call insert_data("", 0). Perhaps xmlnode_insert_data should short-circuit without logging an error if length == 0?