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BTP · Jan 14, 2003, 01:46 AM

I have a bunch of people in my iChat that I want to keep, but I don't want to be available to them all the time. If I up my privacy level, I can't see them, they can't see me. I'll take that, but I'd like to be able to 'lurk" on some people.

It's just that every time I am on, I get people messaging me and I don't always have time to chat with them.

Does anyone know of a way that I can do this? I also know that I can change my status, but I am hoping there is some other method.

Subzero Diesel949 · Jan 14, 2003, 03:14 AM

Not really, but in a hacked version of Adium you can actually play with the idle.

iRebound · Jan 14, 2003, 03:15 AM

um, you can block a certain people on your buddy list or allow only a certain people to see you in privacy

BTP · Jan 14, 2003, 12:13 PM

I know I can block people and use privacy, but as I said before, that doesn't allow me to see them or them see me.

Maybe this just isn't possible in iChat.

I like iChat a lot, but maybe I'll have to give Adium a try.

Technicolor · Jan 14, 2003, 12:40 PM

I think what you're looking for is an "invisible mode". I'm not sure if *any* AIM client supports this. I know Yahoo Messenger does though.

Adam Betts · Jan 14, 2003, 12:57 PM

Originally posted by Technicolor:
I think what you're looking for is an "invisible mode". I'm not sure if *any* AIM client supports this. I know Yahoo Messenger does though.

Yeah, AOL have this too and I used to use it during the AOL day.

BTP · Jan 14, 2003, 04:30 PM

Invisible mode... That would be exactly what I want.

cpac · Jan 14, 2003, 05:02 PM

Um, doesn't "away" do what you want?

I can still see the status of buddies in iChat if I'm set to away...

You could also create a custom one that says "Don't IM me upon pain of death" or something similar.

vertigo · Jan 14, 2003, 11:47 PM

Well you could create a new AIM identity, that your buddies don't know about. Add all your buddies to the new ID and you can lurk all you want. If you want to chat you would need to change to your normal ID.

I don't know if iChat can have multiple ID's, but you could run another IM client just for lurking purposes and turn on iChat when you actually wanted to talk.

~vert

frawgz · Jan 15, 2003, 12:11 AM

As you cannot do this in the official AIM client, it is likely not possible with the server/protocol, so you can't do anything like this in iChat. This feature is something I remember back in my ICQ days that was lost when I moved to AIM..

BTP · Jan 15, 2003, 12:20 AM

Away doesn't do it for me.

It's just an efficiency thing for me, while I want to be available to some people, others that I like and do want to chat with, I don't want to be apologizing all day long that I can't chat.

I found that I was not using iChat as much, just for that simple reason.

Frawgz, I had hoped that wasn't the case, but looks like there is no invisible mode or anything similar.

Thanks for all the suggestions.