Well, the topic says it all.
It doesn't matter if the other side uses Adium 1.0 or ICQ on Win oder whatever is out there. No one is able to see my status text, but I can read the text of others. Is there an option to allow others to see that text or something?
Are you only referring to ICQ or are you also using other protocols (like Jabber)? ICQ doesn't support available status messages. Away message should work.