"Your contact list is currently at or over 150 contacts, the server-imposedlimit"

[Marvin]

Hi MSN gurus... and Happy New Year

I've written to Microsoft support 5-6 times last year and no help so
far. The problem is that I suddenly lost the ability to block users who
added me (and 5 to 10 would attempt to add me daily), or add those who I
wanted to add. I gave up on MSN because upon signing up the list of
pop-up was growing and closing 50+ of them was not really
possibly/feasible anymore.

I've just installed Trillian v3 and connected to MSN. The pop-ups I see
in MSN are also present in Trillian. The only difference is that
Trillian gave me the following error message when I tried to block a
user (I get that message for all users I block)

"Your contact list is currently at or over 150 contacts, the
server-imposed limit. You may not receive status notifications for your
contacts if you exceed the limit, and might want to clean up your list
to ensure proper functionality"

I few questions that come to my mind:
1) Is MSN really limited on the server side to just 150 users???
2) Do blocked users get recorded in my list???? (I've got 100 or so
users that I added, definitely not 150+ but I know some 5-10 users per
day try to block me and I reject them)
3) Is there a fix for this? Either by requesting bigger list from MSN
(how do I do that?) or by removing some of those users I never wanted in
my list (I see tons of those in my list but I cannot delete them. I
installed the latest MSN7-beta and the "Delete" option when I
right-click on a users is grayed out)

Thanks to all in advance!
Marv

PS. Jonathan, you've helped me in the past. I'd be very grateful if you
can look into my problem.

 

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Greetings Marvin,

1 -- Yes, it is.
2 -- No, the blocked list is a separate list from the main ("forward") list. You can have up
to 600-1000 contacts on that list (it's been adjusted a few times and I'm not sure what they
settled on).
3 -- The Delete option will only appear if the user has removed you from their main contact
list. As such, I'm sure at least a few of them should be available. Try removing several.
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2004 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.

 

[Marvin]

Hi Jonathan,

Thanks for answering.

2 -- No, the blocked list is a separate list from the main ("forward") list. You can have up
to 600-1000 contacts on that list (it's been adjusted a few times and I'm not sure what they
settled on).

Can that be full, too? It takes 5-6 mins on a P4-2.4GHz to open the list
and I see tons of entries.

3 -- The Delete option will only appear if the user has removed you from their main contact
list. As such, I'm sure at least a few of them should be available. Try removing several.

I did manage to delete a few, not majority of them - I cannot. I can't
believe that the MSN Messenger architecture is so dump to fill up my
list with users who I don't even care about!

Is there anything I can do on my side to stop all of those pop-ups and
be able to add new users?

Thanks again,
Marv

 

[Jonathan Kay [MVP]]

Hi,

Can that be full, too? It takes 5-6 mins on a P4-2.4GHz to open the list and I see tons of
entries.

Yes it can, although I've never seen such lag for opening the Privacy tab in Messenger.

I did manage to delete a few, not majority of them - I cannot. I can't believe that the MSN
Messenger architecture is so dump to fill up my list with users who I don't even care
about!

Well, thankfully there's actually a cleanup procedure in place (there wasn't for many years),
so "unused" accounts will be disappearing if they're not being used (and on your account).

Is there anything I can do on my side to stop all of those pop-ups and be able to add new
users?

There have been some "utilities" in the past that people have used in an attempt to fix them
(I don't suggest using them nor do I even remember their names off hand). You may just have
to wait for the cleanup procedure to do its thing. Since they just started running it again
last month, it will be awhile before it gets to everyone and unused accounts are properly
flagged for deletion (sorry I have no ETA).
____________________________________________
Jonathan Kay
Microsoft MVP - Windows Messenger/MSN Messenger
Associate Expert
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/
Messenger Resources - http://messenger.jonathankay.com
All posts unless otherwise specified are (c) 2004 Jonathan Kay.
You *must* contact me for redistribution rights.