[John C. Smith]

I've wondered for a while now, do the away messages in iChat work or what? When I choose "away" from the status list, does it actually indicate to other people that I am away? sometimes I get IMs from people even if I'm set to away, and sometimes I've sent several IMs while my thing says "away"... so I'm wondering if the away feature works at all.

[mishap]

It works in the way: it marks you as away, next to your name in people's Buddy Lists. Wether or not you're away, is a different thing.

[spiky_dog]

if you're wondering why it doesn't actually send the away mesg, you're not alone. download icar to fix that:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/11956