I keep getting more and more annoyed with several people’s IM etiquette. Let me preface this by saying that I’ve been using various IM (Instant Message) programs for years now. I’ve had my AIM name since about 2 weeks after AIM was released (I’m guessing around 10 years now?) and I’ve used MSN extensively at my last several jobs.

AIM has a feature called “away messages”, which is basically a functionality that allows you to notify everyone when you’re not at the computer with a custom message. MSN has a similar feature, except that there’s no “message” to it, you just mark yourself away. In addition to being away, both the aforementioned protocols support “idle” status. The bulk of my complaint is when people abuse this Away feature. Maybe “abuse” is a bad word, but they just use it improperly, thereby rendering it completely pointless.

On AIM, I have several friends who just put up generic away messages and leave it like that for days. Often times they won’t take down the away message when they’re actually at the computer, they won’t update it over the course of several days (are you really at work for 4 days solid? day and night?). This gets worse when certain clients don’t support the “idle” state and it never appears as idle. There’s absolutely no difference between someone who is away and someone who is at their computer. You have no way of knowing if someone is there (and will reply to your message) or is actually away, despite what their status. This renders the whole concept of “away” as completely useless.

MSN users have similar problems. I use this extensively at work (as do most of the people I work with). Right now is a prime example. I have a coworker who marked himself as “busy” yesterday (to imply that he was really busy and had no time to chat). Despite this, he still IMs people on the team with random questions, statements, and querys about lunch. Basically, despite being marked “busy”, he’s behaving exactly the same as every other day. This morning, I have a question of him, so I drop him an IM. I notice that his status is “busy” but not idle. His status has been like this since yesterday morning. So, he may be busy (or he may not be), he may be at his computer (or he may not be), he may be in bed at 4am (or may not be), and it doesn’t matter. His status is the same and gives no clues as to his availability. Case in point: he actually hadn’t gotten to work for the day, so his status would be better marked as ‘away’ or even signed off. After he arrived (an hour later), he replied to my IM and we started a conversation. His status stayed the same.

These are pretty petty frustrations, but it’s becoming more and more common and it bugs the hell out of me. I try to be a bit more concise about my status on IM. I may leave myself online while I go to the bathroom or go check the mail, or maybe I’m just puttering around the house while leaving myself online (but will check my computer every now and then). I DON’T, however, go to bed without signing off or putting myself away. I don’t leave the same specific (but incorrect) away message up for days at a time, and I don’t mark myself as “Busy” while still conducting conversations as normal. If I’m online and not “away”, chances are I will reply to your conversation within 5-10 minutes, because I’m not actually ::gasp:: away. If I’m not at my computer and won’t be for quite some time, I won’t be signed in or I will have an away message up.

I’d kindly ask that anyone talk to do the same.
kthxbye.