Pet Peeve about Skype users

January 14, 2009 · 4 Comments

Recently I've received a number of "add contact" requests from people on Skype who have nicknames I don't recognize, who have not completed their profiles and who don't put any information in their "add" request. Why do such people think I'm going to accept their add contact request? I generally just block them since they seem to have such poor manners (and one such user actually called me twice via Skype without introducing themselves and then pulled me into a conference call with the Skype echo tester!). So, if you're going to add me to your Skype contacts, please at least say who you are and how you know me when you send the "add contact" request! Better still, fill out your Skype profile with your full name and blog / website address so folks have some context.

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Tags: personal

4 responses so far ↓

1 Campbell Anderson // Jan 14, 2009 at 3:52 PM

Same thing happens when you forget their name and only know them by their handle. Same for most services as well, like gamer tags.
2 Sean Corfield // Jan 14, 2009 at 4:33 PM

@Campbell, if I knew them by their handle, I'd recognize the nickname in the first place. That's kinda my point: people I *don't* recognize request an "add" but don't provide any identifying information!
3 Adam Bellas // Jan 15, 2009 at 5:11 AM

This bad behavior is the hatchling of the MySpace and Facebook culture IMHO. I'm dismayed that this is bleeding over into something like Skype.
4 Rob Wilkerson // Jan 15, 2009 at 8:01 AM

Extend that same line of thought to almost any social medium: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. If I don't know you or anything about you, I'm not going to accept an association with you. If you're going to participate in that kind of social media then, for God's sake, be social; don't hide behind some pseudo-cloak of anonymity.

Now let's see if I can avoid tripping as I step off of my soapbox. :-)

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