what's the criteria for the list of friends I see in my IM?

Hi guys, the friends you see in your list are people who you're a fan of and who have also fans of you (as Germany guessed).

They also need to be online at the same time as you, of course, and have the IM bar turned on for you to see them listed as online. (The bar can be turned off in your fan profile. Users with Flash or Javascript disabled will also have the bar turned off).

Otherwise, if you're both fans, you'll see them in your offline contacts, which is searchable. You can send them offline messages which will be delivered when they go online.

Finally, to seem them as online, you need to not be "blocked" by them on IM.

Hopefully you all are enjoying the conversations!