why I hate IMs

First let me say, I love instant messengers and think they are a great tool for networking as well as meeting new people. Unfortunately I hate it because of spam, scams and the idiots that do not know how to use them. The main thing I am talking about boils down to one thing, ASL. In some chat rooms it is ok to ask it as basically a roll call type question where everyone answers as an icebreaker.  In my opinion that is fine, but instant messaging a stranger and no sooner than you say hello asking ASL is not only idiotic it is annoying. I have buzzed a few strangers out of the blue, on yahoo especially. Usually it is after doing a yahoo search for whatever I want to chat about and then reading their profile to see if they seem interesting to me. If they don't have a profile I do not waste my time.

First thing I do when someone buzzes me is click their profile to see #1 if I know them or #2 to find out if I want to get to know them. Most of the time if they have no profile  the first few things out of their mouth and mood I am in is going to decide if I want to chat or not. If they say Hello ASL I can guarantee it is going to be CLICK goodbye. On some of my screen names that is bad enough because it shows they have not took the time to read my profile, but what makes me sick at the stupidity of some members of the Human Race is when I  am on my main chatting nickname. The name makes it pretty obvious the answers to SL of the ASL question the name is Bamacwby as in Alabama Cowboy with emphasis being BOY.

Unfortunately the next reason is due to scumbag scammers giving groups of people a bad rep. I am sorry, but for that reason I have got to where I will not chat with anyone from the UK or Africa. I have been contacted by dozens and every time it has got to the same scam so I am sorry, but if I hear someone is from either place that’s an instant ignore. I had one “girl” I chatted with almost every day for close to a month. I enjoyed talking with her until it eventually got the “cheque” scam. They message you sometimes like in this case building up a relationship hopefully getting you to trust them. Then eventually it always boils down to the same conversation usually almost in verbatim that they have got into some sort of trouble and can not cash a check they have gotten. They offer to send you the check to cash if you will send them a wire transfer. It is just one of a million of the scams that have been around since long before the net was even in someone’s dreams, but unfortunately the web makes them a lot worse.

Like I said I love the invention of instant messengers and the web, but they can be a royal pain in the ….