Blocking is used to prevent communication from a specific contact. Once a contact has been blocked, you will appear offline to them and they will be unable to send messages to you. For all services except MSN, they also will appear offline to you, and you will be unable to see their status.

Blocking a Contact

Select the Contact from the Contact List. From the Contact menu, select Block. Also, you may block a contact by Ctrl-Clicking the contact, then selecting Block in that contact's contextual menu.

Unblocking a Contact

Choose Show Offline Contacts from the View menu. (Blocked contacts appear as offline.) Select the newly visible contact from the Contact List. Choose Unblock from the Contact menu. Again, you may use the contact's contextual menu as a shortcut by Ctrl-Clicking the contact, then selecting Unblock.

Blocking/Unblocking within the Message Viewer

While chatting, you will find an icon at the top of your chat window that will block/unblock the current chat's contact. It is a blue chat bubble with a red "do not disturb" symbol. Once the icon is clicked, the contact will be blocked and the red circle will become a green check mark. Clicking this symbol again will unblock the contact.