How do you add friends in Yahoo Messenger?

Hi, I am new to Yahoo! How do I join Yahoo groups to make friends? And add people to my Yahoo messenger? Thank You

I want to know when my friends are online but i don't want to send them a message inviting them to use? How do i do this? Or how can i know if they are online?

whenever I try it takes out the @yahoo. part and if i put it without anything there it shows up as @hotmail.com even though their e-mail is _________@yahoo.com but they use windows messenger.

i want to see my facebook friends in my yahoo messenger list

Without having to add each person individually?

when i click yaho messenger it wont pop up so i have to log in online so how do i add frineds now?

The screen that appear when I click "invite friends" does not allow for adding friends. Please tell me how to do that.

I do not want anybody to know if I am on-line or off-line including my friends. However, I do want my friends listed so that I can quickly send an IM to them if needed.

please tell me how. the answer with the clicking on the smiley face icons to add doesnt work so please don't say it.