Cannot Get Contacts Out of Allow/Block Lists in Privacy Section

This is a problem that has existed with the previous version of Messenger (7
or 8; whatever came right before Live and possibly beyond).

I have some old contacts in the Allow/Block lists in the privacy section
that cannot be removed. The context menu (right-click) has the options of
"Add to contacts", "Move to block/allow list" and "Delete" and I can't
determine what the conditions are on each contact for "Delete" to be enabled
(it's almost always disabled).

I've tried re-adding contacts, moving them around between the lists,
blocking and unblocking them and nothing seems to enable the delete option. I
can't even find any consistency in the qualifying conditions when contacts
sign-in or out or remove me from their contacts lists. The conditions where
"Delete" is enabled on a contact in the Allow/Block lists seems pretty random
and doesn't appear to match up with anything at all.

I'd like to clean up my list since it's unlikely that any of the contacts
I'd like to delete will ever sign-in again, having them there is just clutter
for the display and extra data being stored that doesn't need to be.

Does anyone know the conditions that enable the deletion of a contact or is
it possible that the next revision of the application can just allow
deletions of these items without having to have the sun, moon, stars,
pogosticks, chicken nuggets, wet poodles, red crayons, every third IP packet
sent on Tuesdays and all hairs in Santa's beard aligned just right to have
this option available??

Yeesh!

Actually, by "problem" I meant "working as designed".

I recall having searched for a possible solution to this "issue" before and
found only that Microsoft said it was working as they had designed it.

Unfortunately, they didn't elaborate on how you can get old entries out
completely.

Hi, look at the "Need help with deleting contact out of blocked contact
list!!!!!" thread.

The short answer seems to be that you can't remove contacts from the
Block list if they still have you on their contact list.

Fatneck-X wrote:
> Actually, by "problem" I meant "working as designed".
>
> I recall having searched for a possible solution to this "issue" before and
> found only that Microsoft said it was working as they had designed it.
>
> Unfortunately, they didn't elaborate on how you can get old entries out
> completely.

Thanks, Oscar.

I wasn't able to find the thread you mentioned by searching within this
newsgroup, but I was able to find it with Google by searching for the title
(http://www.microsoft.com/communities...f-e2aeb56d38eb).

The thread says you cannot remove someone from your allow/block lists until
YOUR account if off THEIR contact list. Which leads to the old, inactive
accounts can never be removed from your allow/block lists because the old
contact doesn't sign in anymore and you're stuck on an old, inactive contact
list.

Your inclusion or exclusion from another user's contact list being reflected
in the options available in the privacy section may not be reflected in real
time. I believe I tested this before by removing one account from another's
contact list, then trying to remove it from the allow/block lists and the
delete option wasn't available. I waited a while since first starting this
thread and now the delete option is not disabled, so these statistics may be
updated on a schedule of some kind (or after login/logout of users).

Oh, well. At least *I* don't have to worry about explaining to *MY* boss why
our databases are overflowing with useless, decades old, invalid contact data
that no one can seem to get rid of.

Thanks again!

If this is the way they designed it, they should fire the designers. This is
the most inane way to to business I have ever seen. Due to my email address
being given out to every pre-pubscent moron all over the world by idiots who
think that they can use my email address as theirs, I have a full list of
"contacts" whom I neither know, nor want to know. I have to spend a great
deal of time almost weekly, going through the list, and hitting the delete
key hoping that one of these morons has removed my email address from their
list. I am just about ready to stop using messenger, as it's far more
trouble then it's worth.

If I gave such a lame excuse for poor design, I would soon be out of my job.
Are you listening MICROSOFT

"Fatneck-X" wrote:

> Thanks, Oscar.
>
> I wasn't able to find the thread you mentioned by searching within this
> newsgroup, but I was able to find it with Google by searching for the title
> (http://www.microsoft.com/communities...f-e2aeb56d38eb).
>
> The thread says you cannot remove someone from your allow/block lists until
> YOUR account if off THEIR contact list. Which leads to the old, inactive
> accounts can never be removed from your allow/block lists because the old
> contact doesn't sign in anymore and you're stuck on an old, inactive contact
> list.
>
> Your inclusion or exclusion from another user's contact list being reflected
> in the options available in the privacy section may not be reflected in real
> time. I believe I tested this before by removing one account from another's
> contact list, then trying to remove it from the allow/block lists and the
> delete option wasn't available. I waited a while since first starting this
> thread and now the delete option is not disabled, so these statistics may be
> updated on a schedule of some kind (or after login/logout of users).
>
> Oh, well. At least *I* don't have to worry about explaining to *MY* boss why
> our databases are overflowing with useless, decades old, invalid contact data
> that no one can seem to get rid of.
>
> Thanks again!