GeekSugar

Do You Set Status Updates?

GeekSugar — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 11:00:12 -0700

One of my biggest pet peeves is people who recklessly ignore acceptable online etiquette and fail to start their instant messages with a friendly "Hi!"

What I do adore are status updates that let you know if friends are away from their computer and when my chat buddies put up quirky status notes or share the song they are listening to. Do you set status updates on IM, Google Talk, or another chat platform?

Cool Download: Digsby

GeekSugar — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:01:24 -0700

I don't know about you, but sometimes I get lost when I'm forced to log in and tab through my multiple email accounts and instant messenger clients - all while trying to keep up on my Myspace and Facebook pages (not to mention Twitter that's a full time job in itself) throughout the day. What can I say, I'm addicted to staying connected!

So imagine my utter relief when I found Digsby - a life saving application that gathers up all those different accounts, and keeps them neatly in one convenient spot. No more expose-ing to find the right open window, browser tabbing, or multiple chat alerts to sift through. To find out why I heart Digsby right now, just read more.

Not only can I chat with pals on different accounts from one place, but Digsby will merge those who use more than one account - say Google Talk and AOL - into one contact, so I don't have duplicate buddies to deal with. Plus, I can view my emails and Facebook updates right from Digsby. It really is the bee's knees so to speak, but right now it's only for you lucky PC users. But hang tight the rest of you, the awesomeness of Digsby will be coming to Mac and Linux soon!

Source

IM Gives Shy Guys a Chance

GeekSugar — Tue, 27 May 2008 10:55:15 -0700

Do you know many guys who are socially awkward in person, but once they're in front of a computer they transform into confident ladies' men? Well for Roger Hobbs, a total nerd away from the computer, the Internet became his alter ego. This past weekend, the New York Times showcased the story of Roger, from the trials and tribulations of his Love 2.0 experiences, to the power of online conversation in allowing him to "escape his loser identity and become the super-cool cyber Casanova he thought he deserved to be."

With technology giving him the confidence boost he needed, Roger felt that he had mastered his love life, and knew the secret recipe for getting girls to like him - online that is. As soon as he got a girl's IM name, the words and seduction poured out on the screen.

He says: "Nothing was too challenging. I first seduced my best friend’s girlfriend and, when they broke up, I seduced his new girlfriend. I had a girlfriend in New York and one in Philadelphia. I had a girl I met on a train and a girl I met in a nightclub. I had a Republican and a Democrat, an artist and an engineer, a Christian and an atheist."

Have you heard of this happening very often? Are these the same guys who think it's OK to break up via email?

Source

Online Etiquette: Acceptable Instant Messenger Behavior

GeekSugar — Mon, 19 May 2008 08:00:33 -0700

I got a cheap laugh out of the instructional How to Behave in an Internet Forum video last week, but soon realized there's never been any real etiquette on this wild Internet.

I've put together a list of tips for acceptable instant messenger behavior that addresses some of my biggest pet peeves. This one goes out to all you iChat, AIM, Yahoo messenger and Gchat regulars.

Start with a "Hello" or some sort of greeting: I am on iChat all day long for work and readily available to anyone who IMs me, but I still think you should say "hey!" to someone before you start asking them a question. Call me old fashioned, but it's like starting an email with "Can you please do this for me" instead of a nice greeting.

There are more rules, trust me! Just read more!

Try not to trail off: It's always awkward when you are engaged in a conversation with someone on iChat and they suddenly stop responding to you. If you're chatting with someone and busy, just let them know with a simple "BRB" or "one sec." It will calm their insecurities that you are ignoring them.

Use your away message: Sure, you may have set your chatting preferences to make it look like you are always online to keep your boss happy, but that doesn't mean your friends know it. If you leave the computer or don't want to talk to people, put up an away message. If you use AIM for work be courteous to your co-workers by letting them know when you are in a meeting, grabbing lunch or at the gym. That way you won't return to your desk and have 16 unopened windows.
Back at your computer? Change your away message!: When you return from being away change your away message back to available. You don't want your boss thinking you took a six hour lunch break or your boyfriend thinking you spent four hours at the dentist. People might start to worry about you.
Be smart about screen name exchanges: Don't give your screen name to someone unless you want them to know it. And IM you. Often.
Don't want to be bugged? Go Invisible: Most chatting services allow you to set your online status to invisible. If you do, you will have to initiate contact with friends online but you won't have people bothering you when you're busy.
Some things are best said in an email or (gasp!) in person: If you have a lot of important stuff to say (particularly if it's for work or an important project) put it in an email. It's much easier to have all the information in one place for future reference than to go back and forth and try and make sense of a chat chain.
Let people know when you're signing off: Okay, so this one isn't as important, but if you have been chatting with someone for a while and are getting offline let them know! A simple "TTYL" (as in, Talk to You Later) will do the trick. You wouldn't just hang up on someone on a phone call, would you?

Carrie Bradshaw Learns to Email and IM . . . Slowly

GeekSugar — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 08:00:55 -0700

My heart beats a little faster every day as we near May 30, the day the Sex and the City movie comes out. To that end, I've been posting the geekiest SATC clips to prepare, including everything from the motherboard failure to Carrie's Googling misadventures!

Our fearless and fiercely intelligent women proved they can tackle anything in the show, especially technology - but even a Mac girl like Carrie Bradshaw was mystified from time to time when she dove into a new geeky task. It's crazy to see now, but Carrie was pretty freaked out by email and IM when she first got it (even though this was in 2001!). Watch her ridiculous reaction to Aidan coming online. . .

Website of the Day: IM History

GeekSugar — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:35:14 -0800

I tend to use about four different Instant Messenger clients, and let me tell you, it can be a real pain when I need to find an address or URL a friend has sent me in one of our chats. To combat this problem, IM History is a new site that lets you save and sync your IM conversations for multiple instant messengers in one place. This free, useful application lets you access all your chat history from home, work, or your phone. It's safe, secure, and best of all, it looks good, too!
To learn how to post your favorite websites to our Website of the Day group,
read more.

I know that this long list looks scary, but trust me, once you get the hang of it, it'll be a snap the second time around.

First of all, join the Website of the Day group.
Click the pink "Share" menu on the top left side of the page.
Choose "Blog" and “Regular Post.”
Give your story a “Title.”
Fill in the “Body” with a link to your favorite website and the reasons why you love it.
Click “Next."
Choose the audience for your story to “Website of the Day” in the drop-down menu
Add keyword(s) (for example mine for this photo was "Website of the Day").
Change channel to “Technology and Gadgets.”
Fill in tag field with relevant tags.
Click “I’m done” to submit content.

So join the Website of the Day group and share information about all your favorite sites! Yours just might end up on the geeksugar homepage!

Should AOL Allow People To See Your Location?

GeekSugar — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:33:30 -0700

Gone are the days you can blow off anyone on your buddy list because you are "going out of town" because they just might be able to spy on your where-a-bouts. This weekend AOL unveiled it has launched a new plug-in that allows instant message users to see where people on their buddy lists are physically located. The plug-in will work by monitoring continuous wireless pulses emitted by all Wi-Fi transmitters and Wi-Fi-enabled computers, rather than more common satellite-based approach and will be available for free download, said the AP. The plug-in will be added to AIM's buddy list window called "Near Me" and will feature the names of any buddies who opt to share their locations and who are within a set distance from the AIM user. While I am pleased there is an opt-out option here I am still unsure if I think this is a necessary or responsible idea. How will we ever get out of anything if everyone knows where we are all the time?

Tech Dating 101: Help! He's E-Stalking Me

GeekSugar — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:45:53 -0700

Electronic communication can both help and hurt a relationship. On one hand, it encourages constant communication and may make you feel closer to one another. On the other - this constant communication may make you feel suffocated.

This happened recently to one of my friends. She started seeing a new guy, and intentionally only gave him her phone number - no email address, no Twitter handle, no AIM screen name. She wasn't trying to hide anything, she was just trying make sure things progressed slowly. After a few weeks and a very brief exchange over Gmail - bam! - there he was in her list of Gchat contacts. She didn't think about it until the next day at work when, with the familiar "ding" that accompanies a new message, a "hi!" from her guy.

"I am not ready to Gchat!" she complained to me (via, of course, Gchat). I told her to ignore the Gchat window long enough that her name would display as idle, and then to either log out or turn on the "invisible" option - a quick fix for the moment, but by no means a permanent solution.

She's not the only friend of mine this has happened to. After including her instant messenger name (that she uses for work) on her Facebook profile, one friend was attacked with a flurry of instant messages from someone she was casually dating. So, how do you prevent a new date from e-stalking? That's what I'll cover on this edition of Tech Dating 101. To read the advice I gave to her, read more.

As silly as it may sound, I think it's better to set boundaries early, especially if one or both of you has a job that requires you to be available via phone, IM, email all day. So set rules, boundaries, whatever you have to do. Just because you're available to your boss and co-workers all day doesn't mean you have to make yourself available to everyone else in your life. If you prefer he doesn't chat you up via Gchat or AIM throughout the day, tell him that. Just explain your decision, and make it clear you're not hiding anything - you prefer to talk at certain hours of the day (like when you're off the clock), or you'd rather limit your communication to phone calls and text messages, with the occasional email. (If he's really not getting the message, you could always try adding this link to my advice on how not to virtually stalk someone as your status message, though I recommend that only as a last resort.)

Initially, my friend set her status to "invisible" so he couldn't find her online, which worked fine until she messaged him one afternoon and he responded with, "You're online?" She was totally busted - which is why I'd advise someone in a similar situation to address it, not ignore it.

Do you have a Love 2.0 questioned you want answered? Join the Tech Dating 101 because we understand that ove and dating are stressful and the Internet and social networking sites can just make things worse. You never know, your question could be featured on GeekSugar! Here's a detailed guide to posting questions or posts to groups if you are new to the PopSugar Community.

Tech Dating 101: Decoding Post-Date Texts and IMs

GeekSugar — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:10:40 -0700

The men of Swingers championed a rule that fundamentally changed how fellas of the '90s plotted post-date communication. They said a man should wait three days after a date to call a woman so she would want them more. Preposterous, right? Today the possibilities for contact are so varied - email, work email, IM, gChat, Facebook, Twitter, text and so on - that it can be harder to gauge interest or commitment based on the time frame and way someone reaches out. In this installment of my Tech Dating 101 series I will address how technology and texting have changed the moments and days after a good first date. To see what I think (spoiler alert: it's complicated), read more.

The same day text: Most women I have talked to say they like it when a guy follows up a first date with a short text. It doesn't have to be sexy, or even offer the promise of a second date, but texting is a simple, quick and sweet way to say thanks, without an immediate call. If you had a great time and want him to know, text him yourself. It is one of the most relaxed forms of communication (no login required!) and will keep both of you from getting too wordy.
The three-day text: Consensus among friends is that the day three text could be a cop-out (as in, he isn't ready to commit to a phone call and he's using the antiquated Swingers mentality to make you want him more), but it does count as contact and an effort.
The instant reach out: If a guy initiates communication via instant messaging in any form (iChat, Yahoo Messenger, gChat, Facebook chat etc.) less than two hours after a date he can come off as eager to get the party started. Do with that what you will. I do; however, think it is polite for him to acknowledge he sees you online if you pop online right after your date or in the days following. It's ridiculous to pretend you don't see one another online. That being said, instant messages are not a phone call. If he really wants to talk to you he should still call you up, or at the very least send an email to plan your next get-together.

Got a burning dating and technology question you need answered? Join our Tech Dating 101 group and share your conundrums and advice there with other GeekSugar lovers. Here's a detailed guide to posting questions or posts to groups if you are new to the PopSugar Community.

Back to Basics: What's Your Take on Internet Etiquette?

GeekSugar — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:30:30 -0700

If there was a test based on Internet manners and etiquette most of us would fail. People sign on Gchat, but stay invisible. Others friend you on Facebook hoping to scope out your albums, but don't ever engage with you. And don't even get me started on people who announce their makeups, breakups and hookups via status updates. Where do you stand on the Internet etiquette divide? Find out before you offend someone.

Online Etiquette: Acceptable Instant Messenger Behavior	Miss Manners Says It's Cool to Ignore Friend Requests	Have You Ever Had to Defriend Someone Online?
How Do You Feel About Relationship Status on Facebook?	Do You Set Status Updates on IM?	The Worst Commenters on the Internet...It's Really That Bad