So sometimes I just don't want to deal with people when I turn on my 360.  Sometimes I just want to play a single player game or watch a movie on Netflix and not have to deal with people inviting to do whatever.  One of the few things I greatly love my PS3 over my 360 is that since all my friends are on the 360 my PS3 friends list is pathetic and I don't have to deal with this.

Anyways, is there anyway I can make the 360 by default hide my online status?  I know I can make myself appear offline after I sign on...but that's after I sign on and people already see me online.

For instance, one of my friends wants to play Red Dead with me tonight...and I just don't want to.  Since I'm generally a giant pussy I don't want to tell him look, I don't want to play tonight I just don't use my 360 tonight even though I'd love to play some Red Dead, get some extra achievements on Alan Wake, try some of the Mass Effect 2 DLC, or finish season 6 of 24 but I don't want him to see me sign on so I can't use my 360 tonight because I'm effectively playing hookie.

You can't always have it by default, you have to change it all the time, but there's a way to appear offline before anyone knows you're there. Before you "Sign in", press the Xbox Guide button, go to Preferences if I recall correctly (it's somewhere on the last blade when you keep pressing right), then the first option on top (actually the only option available), finally tick the "Appear Offline" option.

I know the feeling.

That's what I usually do when I don't feel like dealing with people, I just can't do it fast enough before people see that I sign on.  I would just unplug my network cable except I'd like to do things like watch Netflix or get Mass Effect 2 DLC.

Do you mean you have your profile on auto sign-on so you automatically connect on Live the second you open your Xbox. Cause there's a way to change that and do the little trick I was talking about.

Yeah, I keep it on auto-sign in because I want to be signed into Xbox Live, I just don't always want people to know I'm on.

Change your profile so that it doesn't auto sign you into xbox live when you turn it on. Once the xbox is on open the guide, go all the way to the right and go to preferences and set online status to offline. Then sign in and you will appear offline. You have to set yourself to appear offline again though every time you turn your 360 off and on but it only takes 10 seconds.

I know how you feel though, I do this all the time.

You can manually sign in after you turn off auto sign in. Or is it just that you don't want to go through the hassle of signing in every time you turn on your 360?

Well you'll be able to access Live even if you sign-in after doing the trick I'm talking about. Just change your profile to not automatically sign-on.

I concur, turn-off auto sign-on, choose "appear offline" then after you hit "OK", I think you hit X to sign-in.  Whenever I'm dedicating time to a single-player game I do this as well...