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Protecting Your Privacy

OverviewMaking Yourself InvisibleChanging Your Stealth SettingIgnoring a ContactShowing or Hiding Updates

Ignoring a Contact

When you ignore a contact, you stop all communication from that contact through your Messenger client, and, if your name is on that person’s instant message list, you appear offline. The contact can initiate communication from his or her computer, but you will not see or hear anything from that person while using Yahoo! Messenger. This is the right choice to make when you really don’t want someone interacting with you. To use this feature, the contact’s name can’t appear on your Messenger List. You can ignore contacts specified in your Ignore List or anyone who isn’t on your Messenger List.

Tip: You can ignore up to 300 contacts. You can’t ignore Pingbox™ visitors. Learn more

 

Here’s How

Depending on your settings for messages in the Messenger Preferences window, messages from contacts who aren’t on your Messenger List appear in the same offline window or in separate offline windows. Both windows allow you to add a person to your Ignore List.

  1. If a message from an unknown person appears in the offline window, select the message in the upper pane, then click the Report as Spam button.

    Select the message, then click the Report as Spam button.Enlarge

    Yahoo! Messenger adds the person’s name to your Ignore List.

  2. If a message from an unknown person appears in a conversation window, click the Ignore button or the Report as Spam button.

    Click the Ignore button.

    Yahoo! Messenger adds the person’s name to your Ignore List.

  3. Of course, if you want to chat with this person, click the Reply button in an offline window to open a conversation window where you can send an instant message.

 

What’s Next

To remove a name from your Ignore List, open the Preferences window (Messenger > Preferences), select the Ignore List category, then select a name in the list and click the Remove button.

 

Help Topics

 
 

Words to Know

  • Contact: a person with whom you interact; someone to whom you might want to send an email, instant message, or text message.
  • Ignore List: a list of people from whom you don’t want to see or hear anything while you’re using Yahoo! Messenger.
  • Messenger List: the main part of the Contact List in Yahoo! Messenger. The Messenger List includes the contacts with whom you communicate most often.
  • Pingbox: an embedded box on a Web page where visitors to the page can send you instant messages and which lists visitors on your Messenger List.

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