Alternate viewers with better contacts list

Are there any viewers that have a more customizable contacts list, such as the ability to put people in categories like MSN has, or the option to not get the blue popup when certain people log on/off?

Don't know about other viewers but in the standard viewer you can make categories of people, including someone in mulitple categories if you wish, by making sub-folders of your Calling Cards in your inventory. While it doesn't address your second question it will allow for things like group-IM with a particular set (folder) of people easily. You can make copies of their calling cards to include people in several categories/sub-folders if you wish.

There is no viewer that lets you group or categorize your Friends list. The best you can do is use the Calling Cards as mentioned above.

As to the popups, I always thought it odd that I did not have a say in seeing this for others. In any case, best you can do is contact the other person and ask them to uncheck that box so you do not see them coming and going.

In the Preferences, under the Communication tab, look for "Show online Friend notifications". Uncheck that box, no more popup.

Unfortunately, this only works if I don't want to see ANY notifications. What I really want is to simply turn them off for some people that I don't really care about every log in and out.

In the latest viewers I haven't had the blue pop up for friends coming and going since I downloaded it, I actually miss it.

I should read first right?

SL-2.0 is supposed to have at least some rudimentary ways to sort your contacts lists.

If you want something sooner, you might consider going over to Modular Systems and asking the Emerald crew if they can do anything like that.