So, a friend of mine was asking me about the fact that i’m hardly ever online and that I sign in/out frequently. So, I thought i’d take this moment to explain it to the world. (Not like anyone but me reads this blog, but hey, i’ll feel better about it)

What’s wrong with IM? What don’t I like to IM anymore? Why am I annoyed with it? Here we go.

• The status indication systems are horribly broken. I know so few people that actually use the status for what it’s for. Sure, i’m guilty of forgetting to set my away message sometimes, but normally, if i’m logged in… i’m on my PC. Most of my friends are either signed in all of the time but never at their PC or signed in using “hidden” mode. Either way, I just have to blindly IM them and hope they are there. This is a huge frustration for me because one of the neatest things about IM was to ask someone a quick question that didn’t require a phone call but an immediate response would be nice. So, now days I get to message someone and then just sit their and wait for a response like a jackass. I normally end up sending a text message b/c most people will answer their cell phones but ignore their IM client.
• Spam, Scam, etc… I sign in to MSN or ICQ and get hammered by constant invitations from people I don’t know or just IM’ed from people trying to bomb my client with the latest exploit. They’ve already ruined my email with this sort of crap, now they’re after my IM too. Oh well, no more MSN/ICQ for me. I’m sure it won’t be long before AIM/Y! messenger start getting the spam/scam thing going on.
• Trying to carry on a conversation on IM is too distracting, so I can’t do much of anything while i’m on IM. It’s just way too distracting most of the time. Maybe if I could send messages by voice, that would work. It’s odd, I can voice chat or use the phone while I do most things, but IM is just so distracting. I prefer not to do it while I code and definitely not while i’m playing a game.
• It’s impersonal. I generally prefer to talk to people over the phone or in person. To me, IM is the one on one version of IRC. A thing I use to communicate with people that I don’t want to get to know. Technologies that encourage users to communicate in an impersonal manner are somewhat bad. It’s amazing how nice it is just to sit back, relax, and chat (in person or on the phone) with a buddy. Most people think they don’t have time for this because their lives are so busy. It’s a shame too.

Another day, another rant. Deal with it.