Why Do My Yahoo Messenger Icons Go to Sleep?
The face that sits next to your contacts' names in Yahoo Messenger provide info on their current status. You have no control over your buddies icons, but you can customize your own. The icons change after a certain amount of time, but are sometimes set to always sleep. Next to the smiley face are symbols, also accompanied by status messages which inform others whether you're available to chat.
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Idle Symbol
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The sleep, or "Idle" symbol resembles a small clock. When you see this icon it means that person is online but hasn't used his computer recently. An idle status appears automatically and should disappear when your contact becomes active again. The messenger uses typing and mouse movement to detect this, so it's possible your friend is available but engaging in an activity that doesn't require frequent input.
Busy Symbol
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This symbol looks like a red circle with a dash across the middle. It means your contact is busy and most likely not available to send Instant Messages. This option is set manually, as the software has no way of knowing if you're actually "busy." This means your friend doesn't want to be bothered and although they can still receive messages, they may not respond in a timely fashion.
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Gray Icon
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The gray icon means "Offline," and resembles a face with a neutral expression. This does not display next to the smiley face icon, rather it replaces it. These contacts are not currently using Yahoo Messenger, so they can't receive instant messages. You can still type a message, however, and it will be delivered the next time they log on. Offline contacts won't show at all unless you enable them in the Options menu.
Personal Status
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You can see your own status at the top next to your username. Rest the cursor over your name and it tells you how you appear to others. To change it, click "Messenger," "My Availability" and choose a different status. In the same menu, click "Preferences" and then "Privacy" to see how how much time you have before your icon goes to sleep. Look under Idle Status and change the number as needed, or remove the check mark to disable it.
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