Shutting off IM's....is there a way??

Is there a simple way to just not receive IM's for awhile? Please help me! Thanks

Get Greenlife viewer and set IMs to auto respond is one way

Set yourself to "Busy".

World>Set Busy

while in busy mode, if someone sends you something.... it will go into trash

plus you still get the IM.

Yeah, I always still get the IMs in busy mode, too. :/

There's this little [X] at the top of the screen.. press it.


Okay seriously, yes tyou can stem the tide of IMs, with the creative use of windows.

1. Go to your Communicate window, and got to the "Local Chat" tab. Then click the "arrow in a box" icon to "tear off" the local chat window.

2. close the remains of the "Communicate" window.

3. Go down to your volume control, and find the control for "UI" and either click the speaker icon to mute it, or drag the UI volume slider all the way to the left.

As long as you keep your "local chat" window open, you won't see your IMs flashing up on the screen. You'll get a little blue button at the bottom of the screen that says "IM Received".. but that's pretty easy to ignore. Then you can address your IMs when you decide you want to, and don't have to feel like they're "constantly flashing text in your face". This, combined with a busy-mode autoresponse can help quite a bit. It won't "turn off" your incomming IMs, but it will allow you to deal with them on your own terms.

Another trick some people have used successfully, is to set their busy response to "User not online - message will be stored and delivered later." This is surprisingly effective.

Another thing you can do, is in Preferences > Communication, right at the top, turn on "only my friends and groups can see when I'm online". that will reduce the number of random people IMing you.

The "Send IM to Email" only refers to "when you're not online". But that "Include IM in chat console" is a good feature to disable as well if the IMs are confusing your local chat.

I do that, but thing is, if you are on, people expect you to reply. They might not realise how many other IM windows are open too. I think IM should usually be short, because if the person isn't saying let's go do something, they are probably busy.

But like with telephones, most people never say "are you busy?" when you pick up.

When turned on, will respond instead of "X is online", with "X is online and has 7 open IMs including yours"

When activated, only allows a selectable number of IMs open at a time (from 0 to whatever number you can deal with). Additional IMs get put on hold, and sent a user written message.

How about just the ability to 'take a message' (IM answering machine; put IM on hold and playback. Maybe even *partial hold* i.e. put either group or personal IM on standby while you work, or dance; Even better, put some on standby and some NOT. For instance, close friends not on standby, or boss not on standby. Person you just met who has 1,000 questions, standby while you work/dance, until you have a chance to catch your breath. Or vice versa. Put person with 1000 questions not on standby, and others on standby so you can help them. In other words, it's an X on the friends list you can check or uncheck! Per name. Off and on, as circumstance dictates.)

As for the queue idea: I don't know if there might be reasons people don't want everyone in the grid to know how many IM in their queue - or not. I think the queue thing is unnecessary except for perhaps business purposes. Otherwise it could be intrusive.

Or even just the ability to temporarily shut IM off (some will opt for both, some only sometimes but, options are nice) without having an 'away' or 'busy' message? In other words, you can still get group IM but maybe not personal IM, so you can listen without having to chat?

It just seems like a separate thing, to me.

Ok I downloaded Green Life viewer and have it running as I've been hearing so much about it anyway. Anyone know how I do the above? Set IM's to auto respond?
ty ty

If you want to make a feature request, make it in the Jira.

Busy mode is evil and useless, it causes lost articles, and doesn't keep you from being bugged.

What we REALLY need is a "log in offline" mode.

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-468

What I'd really like is the ability to temporarily turn off group chat/IMs without affecting local chat or personal or object IMs. Don't suppose any of the alternate viewers do that?

Wow, I must have never got an IM in busy mode. No point in using it at all then.

Oh, there is still a point to it. No blue pop-ups from any group notices ever while you're in busy mode. Simpler than manually turning off receipt of group notices for all 25 groups you belong to, and then later having to turn that back on again.