A big issue with IM is that you rely on the passive “status” string, and:
- This feature sadly is buggy as hell in some popular implementations. People can appear “Online” one minute and “Away 2 hours” the next (!?!?), presumably from bad syncing code.
- I’ve seen that colleagues vary greatly in their interpretation of status strings. Some people will ask detailed questions using an IM when I am clearly “in conference call” or “in meeting” (or some other “of COURSE I’m busy, damn it!!!” statuses).
Ultimately, the problem with IM is that the “importance” of any given issue between Person 1 and Person 2 is not the same. This means, if I am really busy, I would rather be marked “Away” because frankly nothing else (short of signing off completely) is going to give me the tranquility required to finish a critical task.
- This feature sadly is buggy as hell in some popular implementations. People can appear “Online” one minute and “Away 2 hours” the next (!?!?), presumably from bad syncing code.
- I’ve seen that colleagues vary greatly in their interpretation of status strings. Some people will ask detailed questions using an IM when I am clearly “in conference call” or “in meeting” (or some other “of COURSE I’m busy, damn it!!!” statuses).
Ultimately, the problem with IM is that the “importance” of any given issue between Person 1 and Person 2 is not the same. This means, if I am really busy, I would rather be marked “Away” because frankly nothing else (short of signing off completely) is going to give me the tranquility required to finish a critical task.