Avoiding windows inadvertently switching desktops in XFCE

I've been using XFCE on my laptop for a while now, and there's a lot I like about it. It's clean, minimal and responsive. The majorest annoyance I've encountered is its propensity to move windows between desktops automatically.

Whenever a window gains focus, it will be moved to the currently active desktop. After a while, all the windows will have migrated to the same desktop, and the point of multiple desktop metaphor is pretty much moot.

This is especially annoying whenever I hit a link in the console, on IRC or in an e-mail: Firefox will move over to my current desktop, and I always have to "push it back" to its proper desktop. (Incidentally, Firefox always lives on desktop #2 in my world, whereas IRC is on desktop #1, and my real work happens on #3, #4 and #5).

I've looked at this issue before, not there's no documented way of fixing it. I jumped onto IRC today, and got the following:

22:05 < TheSheep> karltk: http://sheep.art.pl/2007-09-08_Firefox_jumping_between_workspaces_in_XFCE

The solution descriped there is simple, add

activate_action=switch

to your ~/.config/xfce4/xfwm4/xfwm4rc (then restart the XFCE window manager). This will ensure that the Firefox (and other programs) stay on their respective desktops, but that the active desktop changes, i.e. the window stays, you move. And that's the way I like it.

(Oh, and I love IRC. Say what you will about "everybody" using MSN and GTalk, but when I need some actual substance, there's no substitute for the realtime support on IRC.)