Comments on: Apophenia: IM Presence Vs. Communication

By: Helen

Helen — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 13:22:34 +0000

I have an account for people I’ll talk to at anytime and an account for everyone else. It’d be nice not to divide it up like that but part of it is about removing the temptation from ME.

By: Muninn

Muninn — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 03:31:44 +0000

Thanks for your comments…I think it is probably just a matter of time before both the more advanced tools develop and there is a broader understanding of the different ways that people use chat.

Being consistent is important, but talking while “away” is also a way to talk to those need to send messages to about immediate functional things without being drawn into conversation with good, but distant friends who will need a more thorough conversation…

By: Matt

Matt — Sun, 20 Feb 2005 02:11:18 +0000

Hmm, I went and read the post, and OK, if there are really people who get mad because you won’t talk to them despite being online, my solution doesn’t really work. But I think the real issue there is that those PEOPLE are crazy. (And if they won’t listen to sensible explanations, preferring to believe that you’re a mendacious tool, why would you even -want- to talk to them…?) My friends all understand the IM thing pretty well, in particular that logged-on doesn’t always mean able-to-speak.

By: Antara

Antara — Sat, 19 Feb 2005 06:58:37 +0000

hey, download the new MSN Beta thingie, it lets u set ur status before signing in, so u can ‘appear offline’ and sign in.

the other thing is to have to two MSN lists, one with the ppl u would chat with if they were online (i have my family and some of my closest friends on it..not more than 10 ppl) and another with everyone, which now has some 80 ppl and which i log on to intermittently..but when I’m working I log on to the ‘exclusive’ one..coz these are ppl who either won’t disturb me, or are close enough for me to tell them that I’m working, or if they are online I do want to talk to coz I don’t talk to them often enough. anyway, have a good weekend. sorry about the lunch thingie today…lunch with prof bose took over 2 hours…will tell u abt it when we meet. message/email me if u want to meet up any time this weekend..i should be in my room procrastinating for most of the time!!

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 17 Feb 2005 11:35:25 +0000

I hear that the next major update to MSN Messenger will allow you to show different online/offline statuses to different people or groups of people.

The “status” problem, I think, could be solved if people applied them more consistently. If you’re the kind of person who is always set on “busy” but reply to messages anyway, people are going to ignore your “busy” line. (I have one friend who’s ALWAYS busy, even when having long conversations with me about cats.) But if you make a point of only replying to messages after you turn “busy” off (even if that takes hours) people might get the message.