There are three ways to turn IM off.

To remove the IM bar entirely, choose one of these two ways:

• Visit your homepage and click to turn IM off in the top right corner.
• Choose "Off" for your IM setting on the Settings page.

If you just want to log off temporarily, click to open your buddy list at the bottom right of any myYearbook page. At the top of the buddy list, click your name to change your IM status to Away or Busy, or to sign out of IM entirely. If you sign out, the IM bar will remain at the bottom right corner of the screen for you to sign back on whenever you want.

You can IM any of your friends who are online, as long as they haven't chosen to disable IM. To find a friend to IM, click to open your buddy list at the bottom right of any myYearbook page. You can also IM friends in the Friends Online box on your homepage or the Friends Online page.

If you want to block someone from sending you IMs, just click the "Block" button under their photo within the conversation window. This will remove that user from your friends list, block them from sending you IMs, and keep them from communicating with you via Messages on myYearbook.

If you receive an IM containing spam or inappropriate material, click the "Report" button under the other user's photo within the conversation window. This will alert myYearbook Member Services of the event.

You probably turned IM off. To turn it back on, click the IM toggle link at the top right corner of your homepage.

The buddy list is limited to show a maximum of 300 online friends. Don't worry -- you can still IM online friends who don't show up in your buddy list! You can either search for them in the buddy search box at the top of the list, or you can go to their profile and click the IM icon.

Generally, this means that your friend has chosen to sign out of IM, but is still logged into myYearbook. Just send them a message instead of an IM!

Click to open your buddy list in the bottom right of any myYearbook page, then click the speaker icon at the top of the buddy list window. You can always click the speaker icon again if you want to re-enable IM sounds.

The circles to the left of your friends' names in the buddy list represent their IM status.

A green circle means that this friend is online and available to chat with.

A yellow circle means that this friend has gone away from the computer.

A red circle means that this friend is busy and would prefer not to receive IMs.

A gray circle means that this friend is not online.

Click the "Suggestions?" link in the footer of any myYearbook page. Please be as detailed and descriptive as possible. The more information we have about the bug, the quicker we will be able to fix it. Thanks for your help!

Sometimes this behavior occurs when you log out and log back in within less than a minute. Often you can resolve this problem simply by changing pages. If not, you should be reconnected to myYearbook IM within two minutes.

We are working with Meebo on a fix for this issue.

We are working with Meebo on the issue of being randomly signed out of IM, especially when changing pages.

If it happens to you, click the "Suggestion?" link in the footer of any myYearbook page to tell us about it.

Please be as descriptive as possible in your report. Specifically, please tell us what page you were on, what browser and operating system you were using (e.g. "Internet Explorer 7 in Windows XP"), and any other details you think may be useful. The more information we have about the circumstances, the more likely it is that we'll be able to resolve your particular issue.

Unfortunately, AOL's built-in browser is not supported for IM Beta. We would suggest downloading and using Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.