dazjorz, I agree with you. Don't know why these guys feel like they have to be arseholes about disagreeing, but I guess that's just how people are.
To me and plenty of my friends, they aren't all the same. Away means they're still signed in, but not around. Might not even be in the house. Could be gone for hours. Brb, they're still around. Might be going to the toilet, off to check something elsewhere in the house. Even doing something else, could have intermittent returns to the computer. Implies a possibly short response time to any of your messages, possibly longer but you most likely will get one in the time you're still at your computer. I guess Out to Lunch is similar enough to BRB to disappear. Also implies a relatively short absence, as one usually has while eating. On the phone, again that's different. That means you've got someone pulling you away from the computer to talk to you, and you generally won't be able to say anything til you get back from it.
The fact of the matter is, some people use the status to let people know what they're doing, others keep it constantly on away to try and get people not to bug them, and others ignore it completely. Having them still there doesn't disadvantage those who don't use them, but taking them does disadvantage those who do. And why punish some when it makes no difference to the rest?
But then, what would I know. I'm still using 7.0
