QotD: IM
Posted September 18th, 2004 @ 08:34pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Question: When you're using the Internet or otherwise "online," what percentage of the time are you on an instant messaging client?
My Answer: I'm on it 24/7. When I don't want to be bothered, I put up an away message, but I never "hide" from people online. I'm pretty blunt - if I'm busy and you say hi (which is fine), then I'll ask "I'm busy, talk to you in an hour?" and cut any potential time wasted short.
You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.
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Posted 19 Sep 2004 at 11:05pm #
Every minute my laptop is open and online. I rarely hide from people unless I am at the office and really hurting to get something done.
Posted 19 Sep 2004 at 11:34pm #
All the time. One thing I've never got though is the whole away message thing. As far as I'm concerned if someone messages me and I'm not around, then I don't answer. Its like calling someone on the phone, you don't get an up to date reason why they can't answer the phone, it just rings and you leave a message. Now, sure, because we can leave away messages, we should. But I'm lazy, and I feel that if someone doesn't understand no response to mean "not here" then thats their problem, not mine. If I got no response from a "hello" I'd surely assume they weren't around.
Posted 20 Sep 2004 at 9:15am #
I'm logged into IM probably 90% of the time I'm in front of the computer. But just because I'm online doesn't mean I'm in front of the screen - especially at work where I have multiple machines to work at. Trillian runs on my PC, but if I'm working on the mac and the pc goes into screensaver (10 minute delay), then I'm generically "away" and Trillian says so when a message comes in.
Posted 20 Sep 2004 at 11:20pm #
I'm logged in pretty much all the time that I'm at the computer.
What I can't stand is when people put up an away message all the time because it defeats the purpose the message. If you're busy or actually away then it's fine to put up a message. But if you're just sitting there it defeats the purpose to put one up.
I know these people would defend themselves by saying they put it up so annoying people don't bug them, but it ends up being annoying to the people you *do* want to talk to. Every time with one of these people I have to say Hello and then wait a bit to see if they're actually there. There's always confusion as to if they actually are away or are just hiding. This is especially bad if the person is actually away for 90% of the time but leaves the away message up when they are there. Since 9/10 times you bother to say hello to them they don't answer. This can be quite frustrating.
Then of course, if they don't answer, you might beging to think that you're one of the "annoying people" they're trying to keep out. And that's not good for anyone's ego ;).
Posted 21 Sep 2004 at 1:43am #
Almost never. My work is fairly creative, and I hate interruptions when I'm "in the flow." So for specific projects I turn it on, at specific times, and when I'm playing with iChat AV's ability to use sound and pictures. The rest of the time it's off.
In other news, though, I've started playing with Skype, and that may get more uptime.