A change showed up today, adding tiny pictures/icons next to individuals under "Direct messages" in the sidebar. This is very distracting and makes it very difficult to tell who is online and who is not, depending on the background of their tiny image. Very much dislike this change. It would be nice to be able to turn this off.
I too find it much harder to figure out who is on line / off line as well it uses more of my sidebar space. I understand some people might like it, so it would be good to be able to turn this off / on as a preference