Open Radar

 
Summary:
The order of the buddies in the unified chat window in Messages on 10.7 is not predictable. It rearranges potentially with every message sent or received, making the constant animation (when busily chatting with several folks) quite nauseating, and making it impossible for me to know implicitly (i.e. without looking) at any given moment which chat is next in the list (which is important if you use the Select Next/Previous Conversation shortcuts, which I rely on).


Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start chatting with many people. 
2. Have them all talk to you at once, messaging you repeatedly.


Expected Results:
I expected the order of the buddies in the list at the side of the unified message window to be stable, predictable, and able to be set by myself by dragging the buddies to reorder them.


Actual Results:
Instead, the buddies reorder as though they are playing some hideous game of musical chairs. This is a lot of visual distraction, and makes it uncomfortable to use the app.


Regression:
iChat does not have this problem; its unified message window leaves the buddies in the order you open them in/reorder them to.


Notes:
I would actually prefer not being able to reorder them; instead, sorting by last name alphabetical (as with the buddy list!) would be greatly preferable. I would like to be able to have my buddy list closed at all times, and just use the message window full screen.