Logging on in stealth mode?

I know this question has probably been asked before. Is there any way, using any of the viewers, to log on and not have the entire friends list notified? There are times when I would love to log on during the day for just five minutes to get something done real quick, but I don't because I know I'll spend ten minutes explaining to people that I only logged on for a second, and even sometimes being told the fun things they are doing that I could do too if I were staying on longer. I would love to be able to bypass all that sometimes.

Use an alt account that no one knows about.

Any other way? No.

Just login, ignore all IMs, do your thing as quickly as you can, and logout. When someone complains, pretend that you were disconnected--it often takes SL a while to realized that a session has been disconnected, and there are people with flaky connections.

Although, if you've bragged to all your friends about being the CEO of an ISP... hmmm. Ah: you were travelling outside your company's coverage area. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Poo. I don't understand why this would be so hard to implement. If Emerald has a half dozen settings for bewb bouncing, why on earth can't they arrange for me to log in in stealth mode?

Cos you'd be poking around like a crazyman. Just dont have friends and no one will care if your on or off.

The devs of Emerald are probably guys.

Make a priority list for men and male behavior and you'll have an answer to that.

Why not? Probably because there is no way to completely hide yourself from friends in the game. A scripted object could find your online status even if you removed visibility from your friends. It's stupid, yes, but it is what it is.

My suggestion would be to log in and go into busy mode right away, with a message that you're just logging on for a moment and can't talk. Sadly, you have to log in to set your busy mode response, but if you can do that faster than they can IM you, you're good.

unclick all your friends list before you log off ( i do that if i know im coming back in later about hr or so and dont want my friends to IM me if i came in to up load a few textures) and close off opps not the jig us up they know lol

I don't know why you even have to consider sneaking around, lying or pretending to loose your connection. Just ignore them while you do your stuff. Then log off if you need to tend to RL or take a minute to answer the IM's and explain what you came on for and must go (or whatever). No one's going to get upset.........I think you are placing much more importance on yourself than is a reality. People do understand people need to do stuff quickly or quietly without interruptions.

Or you could do as i do. If I log in and immediately get a rash of IM's I do what I came on to do.......even if it's coming on to play. Then I answer at my convenience. All my friends know that I hate being "summoned" immediately upon logging in.........and they accept that about me.

The only way is to be bold and ignore anyone who IMs. If any of your friends are the type that will send 6 lines of dialogue and get angsty at being ignored, putting you on a guilt trip, then I am afraid that is their problem, and you really do need to think of your own needs at that moment and temporarily mute them. Honestly, real friends will understand you don't need pouncing on every time you log in.

I hate that too, but also hate hurting peoples feelings. I have one friend that I lost my temper with once and said "CAN YOU JUST FRIGGIN WAIT FOR ME TO REZ FFS???" I felt bad about that and apologized, but did explain that it really bothers me to be hit the instant I log in. That same friend will start saying hi, if I don't respond, will then go on to say hi in several different languages, then start with the sad smileys like ( ((((. Because I'm not responding. He also IM's me a lot when I'm offline so unchecking his box probably wouldn't do any good, he's going to IM me whether I'm there or not. And of course if I am there and he IM's me then I'm busted. Hard to know what to do for those of us who don't want to hurt their feelings.

You have to be firm but polite. If they really can't understand the concept of wanting private time, being busy, or just wanting to do something that doesn't include them sometimes, there really isn't much else you can do. I know some of the people who gravitate to SL are lonely and needy, but one shouldn't have to jump through hoops and create alts to do what you want when you log in.

Well, sneaking around or faking a crash is much easier.

It's kind of hard to concentrate on business IMs, when you get half a dozen friend IMs coming in the minute you log on.
No - people do not understand. As many times as you tell them. Every time I log in....I send a quick response "just logged in - answering store IMs now"
1) they already know I just logged in and
2) they get that message from me every single frickin' day for 6 months - and they still do it.

What works - is to uncheck the online box on everyone on your friends list. You can log in - in peace.
I just met a guy that waits 15 minutes before saying "hi" - and I am IN LOVE! Doesn't get much better than that! His mother taught him well.

The best stealth is acting like you are not answering them..most times they will go away forever

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who does this occasionally. I sometimes feel bad about ignoring people, though.

The problem with unchecking people is that yes, I have been busted already when someone sent me an IM while I did not appear to be online in their friends list. There appears to be no perfect solution.

Perfect solution would be for LL to make a functioning list with functioning tools.

Don't worry about the getting busted part. Just explain that you have to do that with your whole list, in order to get work done. There is no way around it. You can't uncheck every other day - so it's just your policy.

If someone gets pissy about that - they are going to get pissy about a lot of other things, too. Get ready.

You do have work to do right? If you don't have to work to do - you're in trouble.

I uncheck sometimes but often I dont. Anyway, sl is for communicating so when someone in the world says hi to me, I say Hi back. Or I Hi them first. I love people IMing me. I dont think anyone is so unimportantto be ignored.

Ignoring someone's IM is like ignoring someone's telephone call and letting the phone ring. It's rude. Just say Hi, say your busy (or having sex) and be done with it. People from Australia IM me and how can I be so busy in sl to ignore someone from so far away trying to say Hi? Or my "sl adopted" daughter in Mumbhai is at work and wants to tell me something really funny. Or Ally, my "eldest one" wants to have some lindens. Or Hal in UK. Or Scylla . Or Calli. Or Rosco down in the Caribbean. I have to answer them. Or JW in Michigan, KJ in Tynemouth, D in Switzerland...

100% agree. Its OK feeling sorry for people and not wanting to hurt their feelings but at the end of the day by jumping on someone the moment they log into SL, just like Dino in The Flintstones when Fred comes home from work, its showing a distinct lack of consideration.

log in, go immediately to busy mode.

yes I really do wish there was a global "log on silently/invisible" like most chat clients offer.

had to unleash on a friend once for iming when I wasnt even rezzed yet. Since then she has been pretty good. Yes I felt bad for doing it but dang let me rezz first.

But I wish sl would implement a button on the friends list that turns your online status for everyone off at the same time. Sometimes it can be hard to click all the boxes, going through the list you may accidently click it twice for an online friend and it would look to them like you logged out and logged back in and then back out within seconds.

Treasure, an elbow-jogger like that would not be on my Friends List for very long. He'd be on my OTHER list...

Drama looking for a place to happen, Treasure - sorry to hear it.

Emerald does have a neat thing - you can have an instant response go out when someone starts typing- I keep mine on all the time- says sorry if i don't respond right away, might be behind a ton of IM's or afk- please drop me a notecard. You get an 'excuse' for not answering right off and they don't get hurt feelings.

What I don't do is check off the see me thing 'cause personally it bugs the crap out of me if it's done to me- obviously by people that are close to me not the hundred folks we have on our contact list that are aquaintances and not necessarily Friends- then again, those folks don't generally contact one unless they really need you.

yes Amar, your (busy) message is very nice. i have never found it offensive.