I’m having this same problem. I think it’s been happening for about a week now. After tracking what was going on with another Y! ID on Trillian, I’m able to summise the following:

1.) When you log off messenger, your Y! ID appears to log back on in ‘available’ mode or with some strange status message. The status messages appear to be randomly generated, some are very crude.

2.) The new ‘fake’ status is only viewable by friends already online. If a new friend appears, that friend won’t see you as online or with a strange status while you are offline.

3.) When you come back online, your strange status is still visible to those who never left, and your current ‘real’ status is visible to those that came online during your absence. (I know this is getting confusing)

I’d really like to fix this problem. It is happening with all the Y! IDs on my computer. Doesn’t matter if I am using Trillian or Y! Messenger to access Y! service. Anyone have any info/clues? … Bueller? … Anyone?

Lisa