I hate IM
Now and then I log on to Meebo to let some of my friends know that I am still alive. I do not mind using Meebo, but I would love to be able to login to Meebo via an IM client instead of having to rely on using a browser. Sometimes you want to avoid distractions as much as possible. By working with a certain task within its own windows helps. This has lead me to take a closer look at Jabber and transports.
This is the thing I mainly hate with IM. If your friend uses MSN you have to get a MSN account too — if you want to communicate with your friend through IM. Which is why I love email. It does not matter who provides the email service to me or my friends, it will be sent and received to everyone it is intended for regardless. Jabber seems to be attempting to do this, that as long as you have a Jabber account, you can talk with anyone with a Jabber account, regardless of the server they are on.
Most of my friends are on MSN, so I could of course use my old MSN account or get a new one — start fresh again. Or I can use a Jabber account that supports transports to other IM services. At the moment I am trying the latter, but it does not really feel right. It is something with it that makes it feel wrong.
If only I could make some of my friends go back to using IRC and join me on the Freenode server — or whatever server. I started out with IRC, so naturally I prefer it. And I remember when my friends started to use IM more than IRC that I almost refused to join the switch. Kind of like when Microsoft released Windows 95 and it almost took me a year to give up DOS.
I will figure it out eventually.
What is you favourite form of communication when online?
★★★★★