AFK vs. Busy?

I recently figured out how to use the Gestures menu to make myself go into the AFK slouch when I need to run and check on the roast or answer the phone. Then I'm not standing there apparently ignoring someone who might happen by. I've seen people refer to being "busy" or in "busy mode." Is the same thing or something different and therefore differently useful?

if someone Im's you when you are afk then the message is delivered to you as usual. If you have your av set to busy them someone IMing you will get a message back telling them you are busy. Never tried this myself but overheard someone explaining it yesterday to a noob so forgive me if i'm wrong.

Busy mode allows you to be active, but you don't get IM's and attempts to give you inventory are refused. It's very handy when you are building or roleplaying and absolutely do NOT want a bunch of unreleated stuff popping up on your screen.

You can't move around while 'Away' without canceling that status...it really is meant to signify AFK. Busy allows you to be online and working with less chance of being interrupted, ie; you can do anything you normally would, except receive inventory, but IMs are stored and most polite people won't bother you if you have the 'Busy' above your head.

Are your IM's delivered once you come out of busy mode?

Thanks for the info, everyone. Now, how do I get "Busy?"

{And I don't mean send me to one of those attachment stores }

On a related note...

When I click on World\Set Away, my AV slumps over. But if I later go back to World\Set Away, there's no checkmark or anything to tell me which status I'm in...and more often than not, my AV is sitting up again, too.

Aside from the initial slump gesture, how do you (and others) actually know if you're Away, or There?

You usually stop being away the moment you twitch your mouse or touch a key.

And yes, you get your IMs when you come out of Busy mode, unless you received a ton and got capped.

I believe it's under the World menu.

Also, in my experience you don't see chat from people around you. Although you do still hear the keyboard noise.

Funny story... I got Teeple Linden on support Live Chat once, and he came out to help me in world. He starts chatting at me in-world, but he still had Busy on. Turns out he forgot, and he couldn't understand why I typed and typed but never responded. I finally had to go back to the Live Chat and tell him to turn off Busy! Needless to say we both found the whole thing very funny, and topped it off by both going narcoleptic and having the next few minutes of chat in our AFK slumps!

Just helpful hint for the OP:

Once you're in-world, go to the Preferences menu. Under the Communication settting you can set your own "Busy" message others will recieve when trying to contact you in busy mode.

Thanks again!

One more question--If I set myself as busy and then log off do I stay in that mode? For example if I am not going to be in SL for a while--days to weeks--I could have my busy message say when I'll be back so people don't think I'm just ignoring them?

I occasionally use "busy" instead of "away" because it does allow you to set a message, while "away" does not. If I'm in my home and need to go afk for a few minutes but I don't want to log out, my friends wouldn't know if I were away or ignoring them if they IMed. By sending a message, they know this and when I'll return.

Nope. You have to be logged in and manually set Busy Mode.

If you do receive IM's while in Busy....you will see the IM Received button on the bottom of your screen, but you will not see the message until you open the IM.

If I remember correctly, you will not receive Group IM's while in Busy Mode (blessing or a curse....you decide).

Should you be gone from SL for a bit...weeks, months..years, you might just put a friendly little message in your profile telling peeps you won't be in world for a bit.

~Ari

Thanks for the excellent tip, Ari. I'll do that!

Glad to have been a wee bit of help my dear Bodhisatva!

~Ari

I do this too, with a nice custom message as mentioned by Tod69. It's really a shame that "away" doesn't also autoreply to IMs, then I wouldn't need to substitute "busy" just to get that functionality.

I use busy frequently to suppress group IM spam. Personal IMs come to me directly, although the button will just pop up and the IM noise will go off. Senders will get the automessage. I will often tell people that I have it on just to suppress group IM spam.