If a buddy's screename is faded (in the offline section), but a video icon is still next to the screename, and if you right click on the name "video chat" is an option, what does this mean? it is the only one on my whole list that has this.

Question

if a buddy's screename is faded (in the offline section), but a video icon is still next to the screename, and if you right click on the name "video chat" is an option, what does this mean? it is the only one on my whole list that has this.

Answer 1

Hi,
It could be some sort of "flagging" issue where either the AIM Servers have gone out of sync and you are getting two lots of info  (There are about three or four servers involved with getting data to your Buddy list)
I can also see the possibility where you have a Contact in your Address Book who has two Screen Names.
You have one in one group and in another they appear to be Off Line.  However iChat will still Link them and Show their Capabilities when you Right Click.
One way of checking this is to double click them to open a Text Chat Window.
At the top is the Recipients Bar  (See View Menu when  Text Chat is Open).
This gives you the option to chose a different Buddy Name if the contact has two  (It offers To and From options if you both have Multiple Accounts).
Pic of an Old Chat to someone with Multiple "Names"
They have an @Mac.com name and  Jabber ID  (As it is an Old Chat the Jabber one is Off Line and their @mac.com name is currently "Away"
You can see I have a Google and three AIM Logins I could use to Speak to them.
9:48 PM      Sunday; December 4, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
  iMac 2.5Ghz 5i 2011 (Lion 10.7.2)
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb (Snow Leopard 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.8),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously