Your Buddy List shows you when your friends are online and if they are available for chatting. To see who is online, you must be online yourself. If your status is Offline, none of your buddies are available and they cannot see you or send you messages.
If any buddies are shown as online, but idle, that means they haven't used their computer in a while. iChat AV shows you how long each person has been idle. You can still send a message; it will be waiting onscreen when your buddy returns to the computer. |