Can't stop Buddy List from appearing on startup

[Bob]

I'm unable to disable the buddy list on startup. I'm running Ubuntu
10.10 & before that 10.04. I've installed extended preferences 0.7
plugin and it doesn't work. I've written a script, as suggested on some
forums, to start Pidgin after 60 seconds but the Buddy List still shows.
Can you include a "Disable Buddy List on startup" option in a future
release of Pidgin? It is really annoying to have to close it every time
I reboot.