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Playing with Y!IM

Adding to the friend list in Yahoo! Instant Messenger

I was playing with Yahoo! Messenger trying to figure out the privacy behavior in regards to the friend list. Yahoo! has a process when adding friends in Yahoo! Web Messenger (the applet version). Here's some steps I took in playing with that process.

• Using one account that was logged into Web Messenger, I made a request to add [yahoo account], which was logged into the Windows client (see version below).
• As [yahoo account], in the New Friend Alert I chose Accept, which allowed [yahoo account] into the other user's friend list, but didn't add that user to [yahoo account]' list.
• Deleted [yahoo account] from the other user's friend list.
• Tried to add [yahoo account] again, but this time as [yahoo account] I clicked Accept & Add in the New Friend Alert, but clicked Cancel in the Add a Friend dialog. At this point [yahoo account] was not in the friend list.
• For the third time I tried to add [yahoo account]. Got the following message after going through the validation in the Add a Friend dialog:
  User '[yahoo account]' could not be added to your buddy list.
• With [yahoo account] not in the friend list, logged out of the other user and logged back in. Then [yahoo account] was in the friend list. Apparently there was a refresh issue before. The message had told me [yahoo account] couldn't be added, because it was already in the list.
• For the second time, deleted [yahoo account] from the other user's friend list.
• For the fourth time I tried to add [yahoo account]. As [yahoo account], I clicked Accept & Add in the New Friend Alert, and Ok in the Add a Friend dialog. By now, [yahoo account] had the other user listed in the friend list.
• A response was sent to the other account, and it displayed another New Friend Alert, for which I clicked Accept & Add.
• As the other user, clicked Cancel in the Add a Friend dialog. For that user, [yahoo account] showed up in the list, but not as being online.
• For the third time, deleted [yahoo account] from the other user's friend list.
• For the fifth time I tried to add [yahoo account]. As [yahoo account] I only had the option to Accept or Deny (no Accept & Add), since the other use was already in the friend list. I chose Accept, but [yahoo account] still wasn't in the friend list.
• Logged out of the other user and logged back in. Now [yahoo account] showed up as online in the friend list, and vice versa.

Of course I didn't have to jump through all those hoops to get a friend added, but it just goes to show that you can if you want to. One way to avoid this hassle is don't use Web Messenger to add and delete users from the friend list.

Client version:
Yahoo Messenger (5, 6, 0, 1347)
MyYahoo Module (5, 6, 0, 501)