# Facebook new chat - how do always show certain friends at the sidebar

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-new-chat-how-do-always-show-certain-friends-at-the-sidebar/590357>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 26, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-new-chat-how-do-always-show-certain-friends-at-the-sidebar/590357 "2011-07-26T04:18:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-new-chat-how-do-always-show-certain-friends-at-the-sidebar/590357/1 "2011-07-26T04:18:53Z")

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I hate the FB new style chat because it only show some friends at the sidebar, and it’s choosen arbitary. Is there anyway to go back to the old style, or to “sticky” some friends there?

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**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-new-chat-how-do-always-show-certain-friends-at-the-sidebar/590357/2 "2011-07-26T05:09:35Z")

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You can use “Limit Availability” (click the little gear icon at the bottom) to specify which lists of your friends you want able to see you. Of course, you have to have created lists and put your friends ON them for that to be useful.

Me, I hate that you can’t pop out the chat anymore so you can have a large window to chat in while still doing other stuff. That just sucks. And streaming all messages (mail and chat) into one place? Sucks.

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**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-new-chat-how-do-always-show-certain-friends-at-the-sidebar/590357/3 "2011-07-26T05:12:42Z")

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> [@Morgyn](#):
>
> You can use “Limit Availability” (click the little gear icon at the bottom) to specify which lists of your friends you want able to see you. Of course, you have to have created lists and put your friends ON them for that to be useful.
> 
> Me, I hate that you can’t pop out the chat anymore so you can have a large window to chat in while still doing other stuff. That just sucks. And streaming all messages (mail and chat) into one place? Sucks.

Oh I totally agree. Combining messages and chat just seems like a great way to say the wrong thing in the wrong place. I am more careful about what I message now. It was a stupid change.

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**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\
**Post date:** [July 26, 2011, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/facebook-new-chat-how-do-always-show-certain-friends-at-the-sidebar/590357/4 "2011-07-26T08:12:24Z")

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I’ve turned chat off completely now. I did have a couple of people I had on a special super-secret list that I used chat with, now EVERYONE has to go through messaging.