Should really be 'IM Etiquette', this has happened to me, and I'm sure many others, in other IM networks as well.<p>He hits the nail on the head on the rest of the article though.
I agree with most of the points, but the first is a little iffy. I'd rather have someone just skype me their question than chase each other around all day doing the "yt?" ... 15 min later ... "yes" ... 20 min later ... "sorry, I'm back now. you still there?" ... dance.
I find it interesting to compare how I use Skype with how I use a regular phone. With skype, I always IM the person first (usually just saying "skype?") to see if they're available for a discussion. With regular phones, I'm used to just calling.<p>The skype approach seems far more preferable. My guess is that as SMS/IM/VOIP becomes more ubiquitous the standard etiquette will be to ask before calling.
Once of my biggest pet peeves with Skype is the way presence notification permissions are handled. The default way to make contact with somebody seems to be "add them to my contact list" which then initiates a message exchange of "Can I see when you are online". The problem with this is that and once granted, presence notification permissions live on the other person's computer and _cannot be revoked_. Removing them from your contact list does not prevent them seeing your online status and blocking them outright is the only solution. This is overkill however since I may wish to be able to receive calls/chats from them still but don't want to broadcast my online presence to them.<p>While I can of course change my status to invisible, this is a global setting and affects all my contacts. I now live in a permanent state of lurking on Skype, because so many business contacts have initiated contact with the "can I see you online" and would have taken offense if I simply said no.<p>In short, I would love to see better presence notification options in Skype including the ability to revoke permissions and to partition people into groups and assign a corresponding status to each group.
I will never understand why people will want to use alert sounds in the first place. I'm happy I still retain most of my functional hearing after enabling alert sounds in Messenger inadvertently while wearing headphones.
I've never seen anyone abuse the enter button like he describes. On the other hand, if they did, I'd block them before they finished their second message.
"It’s annoying when the Skype phone starts ringing randomly"<p>You mean like, uh, when someone phones you normally? my counter view is that I hate it when people send me a chat saying "hey are you free for a phone call". Am I signed into Skype? Yes. That means I am probably able to take your call. Sheesh :)