[X4U] iChat AV...buddies won't display

[Stroller]

On Oct 28, 2005, at 4:18 am, Michael Elliott wrote:
> ...
> To see if this was a problem with my computer, I signed on with my 
> laptop, and get the same problem:  no buddies listed as being "online" 
> in iChat AV...

I think that in reproducing this on both your laptop & home computer 
you're demonstrating that the problem isn't with a preferences file or 
whatever.

Buddies not being listed as "online" in iChat is a problem I always 
assumed to be associated with AIM users being in "hidden" mode, but 
I've never experienced this with my whole buddylist. I'll occasionally 
add a buddy & find that they'll show as offline, which is extremely 
frustrating if you're in the middle of talking to them, as the 
text-entry box in the chat window disappears. The only way to restart 
the chat is to delete that person from the buddylist, close & restart 
iChatAV & then start a new chat from the File menu, entering their 
screenname.

I think I've found in the past that some buddies who demonstrate this 
behaviour show as online again once they've added me to their 
buddylists. I believe I may also have worked around this by adding the 
AIM ID to Address Book, rather than through iChat's interface.

Since you have this problem with a particular group of buddies, is it 
possible that they all have something in common? Could they all be AOL 
users? If that's the case they'd all be connecting to AIM through the 
PC AOL application, rather than the separate AIM client for non-AOL 
users. Rereading your post, I see that you're an AOL user yourself (not 
just using AIM on your Mac?) so we do differ in that respect, and 
perhaps your problem is related to this.

Coincidentally, AOL offered me 60 days free this week and I tried to 
sign up for it, but was unable to do so because I wasn't prepared to 
give them legitimate billing details. I wouldn't use AOL for my main 
ISP connection but AOL users do seem to like it and I thought it'd be 
interesting to see what the Mac AOL application looks like. I hear that 
some of the chat rooms are quite good, but I can't see myself paying 
money for AOL's package.

I would be extremely interested to hear of any progress you make 
tracking this down, or of any further symptoms you manage to isolate 
through experimentation.

Stroller.