# What's with the giant list of contacts to "chat" with on the side of Facebook now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 17, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-giant-list-of-contacts-to-chat-with-on-the-side-of-facebook-now/603276 "2011-11-17T21:38:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cubsfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Cubsfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cubsfan)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-giant-list-of-contacts-to-chat-with-on-the-side-of-facebook-now/603276/1 "2011-11-17T21:38:04Z")
I don’t understand this stupid list that takes up about 20% of the screen real estate. It pops back up every time I log in and it lists ALL Of my contacts even if they aren’t online. I don’t understand 2 things about this. 1. Why are they forcing this stupid list onthe side of the page? Let me turn it off permanently because I don’t chat. 2. If they are going to force you to see the thing why do they show EVERY contact you have? Why not just show the people who are online? GRRR!!! ---
**Author:** ![TheChileanBlob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thechileanblob/32/435_2.png) [@TheChileanBlob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheChileanBlob)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-giant-list-of-contacts-to-chat-with-on-the-side-of-facebook-now/603276/2 "2011-11-17T22:07:07Z")
You may be interested in [Social Fixer](http://socialfixer.com/), formerly called Better Facebook. You can customize all that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-giant-list-of-contacts-to-chat-with-on-the-side-of-facebook-now/603276/3 "2011-11-18T02:05:06Z")
I agree with #2. What the fuck is the point of showing me offline contacts? Fucking worthless Facebook. As for number one, you can press the button with the right pointing arrow, it will say “hide sidebar” when hovered over. Make sure to tell it that you are not available to chat as well. Do that using the flower thingy next to the arrow. Step three is to get Google+ and tell Facebook friends to get with the times and tell Facebook to fuck off. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-giant-list-of-contacts-to-chat-with-on-the-side-of-facebook-now/603276/4 "2011-11-18T02:20:36Z")
I’m also puzzled by this. What possible purpose does it serve? It doesn’t help me, it’s an annoyance. It doesn’t serve any marketing purpose that I can see. So why? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-giant-list-of-contacts-to-chat-with-on-the-side-of-facebook-now/603276/5 "2011-11-18T03:57:04Z")
The likely reason to show offline contacts is that you can still message them. I think Facebook would like to be the default way to contact people, and I’ve seen people using it as such. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-giant-list-of-contacts-to-chat-with-on-the-side-of-facebook-now/603276/6 "2011-11-18T04:10:48Z")
Yeah, it’s folded messaging and IMing into one weird glob that doesn’t work very well and just makes me go back to sending emails for everything. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-with-the-giant-list-of-contacts-to-chat-with-on-the-side-of-facebook-now/603276/7 "2011-11-18T15:57:12Z")
I don’t have it. Is it because I have my screen set smaller? Because there’s no way it would fit with all that other stuff on the side. BTW, Facebook is an email client now. At least, it tells me that I can claim a facebook email address if I want, just like MySpace did right before it croaked.