Comment 1 for bug 13270

the privacy dialog is one of the worst imaginable interfaces for what it does,
certainly the least intuitive in all of gaim. its functioning depends highly on
what protocol you are configuring the privacy option for, even though the labels
in it never change. we are currently, though somewhat sporadically, discussing
and working on an improved interface for it.

anyway. with msn, the "allow below" and "deny below" lists are ALWAYS in use.
they do not block messages, but only control who can *see* you. in icq, only
one list is used, and once again, it controls state, not messaging. aim also
only uses one list, but that controls both state and messaging ability. yahoo &
jabber I forget. IRC does not use this dialog at all, and novell, meanwhile
(sametime), gadu-gadu, and zepher I also do not know.