To answer both questions of "how do you know it is by design" and the (not) adding as a "hidden" setting: one of my arguments is that this beheviour was exatly the same for the auto-away as it is now for the Boss Protection, until Patchou added that registry key... Both that situation and this one is the same; it both will limit an action to only a specific status or statusses.
quote:
2.21.56 Version - 20/09/2003
* By default, the "auto away" feature now changes your status online when it is Online or Idle. If you want to keep the way the feature worked before, use the AutoAwayAlways registry setting
Fictious quote of how it could be:
quote:
3.xx.xxx Version - xx/xx/2005
* By default, the Boss Protection feature now changes your status only when you're online. If you want to keep the way the feature worked before, use the BossProtectionAlways registry setting
anyways, we both agree it will be a good feature, no matter how it is implemented, right?