I'm about ready to stop using any form of instant messaging or chat rooms alltogether. For the past several years, at any given time, there has always been at least two or three people in my life who drive me completely nuts online.

I mistakingly give these people my screename, and from then on they instant message the hell out of me. Literally EVERY time I sign on, several times a day, within seconds one of them is IMing me "hey whats up".

They have nothing important to even say to me. And I dont have anything great to tell them either. They just nag the hell out of me with pointless smalltalk, constantly interrupting whatever I'm trying to do with their freaking blinking IM windows.

In the past, I've tried to create a new screename, and let only those people I really want to talk to in on it. But after doing this 6 or 7 times, I've lost track of who knows what screename. And most of my friends never bothered to remember my new name(s) so they keep using my old ones instead.

I know I could just not sign on. But I do like to keep myself somewhat available online to get in touch with old friends, or in case someone needs to contact me about something important and they dont know my number.

Nowdays, Im almost afraid to sign on to anything, because as soon as I see one of these pests online, I cant even get my pointer to the top of the screen to close out of it before they are messaging me.

In a few instances, I go to the extreme and just block them. This isnt so hard if its someone you really hate. But in many cases, these are friends of mine that nag me, and they get all offended and mad when I basically have to tell them they are no longer allowed to message me because they are driving me nuts.

Sorry for the long rant but its been bugging me! LOL

Just block or turn it off. Don't let peeps run you.

Tom click the invisible on ur pagers and then no one will see ur online, u can load it and keep it like that and only chat to those u wanna, that’s what i do.

Use Yahoo instead of AOL for messaging. You can be in invisible mode but still see if other people are online, so you choose who you want to talk to.

Sorry, but that's just too funny, mainly cause it sounds so familiar.

tackam said:

there's an "appear offline" mode on MSN as well.

Heiress said:

Ah, good. The take-home message here being, as always, AOL royally sucks.