I think you are supposed to hover over the Friends online thing and something should popup or change allowing you to type in what you want. I can't say this is true from experience since its never worked properly for me - not using the right browser I think.

hover over your 'x friends online' and click on the thick black line it should be there

if it doesn't work, try this: click on your browsers 'view' button go to 'page style', select 'no style' and change it there

Yes, that's what you're suppose to do to change your status. However, if you don't see a box that will let you type anything in. It means that it probably dissappeared.

The best way to solve it is to constantly click where the box should be. So click somewhere on that horizontal line that is under where it says 'buddylist|comments'

Just click it. A lot. :D