"Hide This Menu" item is missing

Isn't it a bit inconsistent that no other indicator has a "hide this menu" option in the menu itself?

Not that there's any where else for this option to go...

Confirming the issue of not being able to get rid of indicator-messages apart from uninstalling it system-wide, but not agreeing with stuffing the menu with another item just for solving this. IMHO Indicator-messages should be de-/selectable in Startup Applications preferences (like indicator-multiload for instance is).

According to an answer on Ask Ubuntu [1], blacklisting all message-providers should hide indicator-messages altogether, but this doesn't seem to work in 12.04, apparently because status-providers (which are different from message-providers) are still using the menu. (U1 Control Panel also seems to still occupy it despite being blacklisted.)

I've even tried overriding indicator-messages' dbus service file with a hackish solution [2], but the envelope still insists on appearing (though without the associated menu).

* [1] http://askubuntu.com/a/15616/34756
* [2] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=544483#42

This bug is in contradiction with what is done of other indicators, is there any reason for that?

according to John this is not per the spec/design, thus invalid

John was misinformed. It is per the design, and defined in the specification at <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MessagingMenu#hide>.

Other indicator menus end with a "Settings…" item that goes to the settings panel where you can turn the menu off. There is no settings panel for messaging in general, which is why the function stands alone in this case.

as John requested the change I would like to hear his final feedback before we proceed

Too late to fix this for P now, so let's track it in Q.

Now that the messaging menu (a) will be showing only those applications that are registered, and (b) won't show at all when no applications are registered, we don't need the "Hide This Menu" item at all any more. Hurrah! <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MessagingMenu?action=diff&rev2=83&rev1=82>

Closing bug because this option has been removed from the new indicator IA, see mpt's comment above

Ability to do this is one of the things crucial to GNU/Linux and one thing that Unity is missing at the moment; please reconsider about the "won't fix" status.