Many people use Windows live messenger (or MSN if you still prefer that name), and so do I. There are a couple of things that bug me about the way some people use it though. I guess they actually apply to most IM services, but my experience is solely with WLM.
Statuses
I always use the status feature what it is meant for—to indicate my status. When I’m available to talk to, I’ll have my status at… you guessed it—available.
When I’m busy with something, I’ll have it at busy. This means you can still talk to me, but you shouldn’t really expect a quick response from me, or just me pursuing active conversation, since, as my status implies, I’m busy with things.
When I set my status to away (and this is the one that many people don’t seem to grasp) it means I AM NOT THERE. When I am away, you shouldn’t talk to me if you expect a response soon. Sure, you can leave me a message for when I get back, so I can get back to you, when I’m actually there.
I’ve had it more often than I would deem normal that I come back to my computer to see a bunch of messages telling me to respond. I’m NOT THERE, so I don’t see you’re talking to me so I CAN’T RESPOND. It’s not too hard to understand. Sure, some people you know set themselves to ‘away’ even when they’re there—but does that mean that everyone does that? Didn’t it get to you, that when someone that is at ‘away’, and doesn’t respond, might in fact be, you know, away?
‘Instant’
Sometimes, when someone is set to ‘available’, and I try to talk to them, it takes a couple of minutes for them to respond. This is completely acceptable, the person might be busy chatting to others. What frustrates me though, is that sometimes, people respond, then I talk back, and then it takes another 10 minutes or so for the next response—and so on. If you’re busy, use that handy status feature to indicate so. It’s really frustrating if you try to have a conversation with someone who only replies every 10 minutes, especially if their responses indicate interest in having the conversation.
During conversations like these, I sometimes get the feeling that using e-mail would be more efficient.
Feel free to add your own rants about instant messaging.