14 Comments to “ Question: Do you have any single contact listed on more than one of your online instant messaging or e-mail accounts? .” Please leave a comment below, thank you.

1. # 1
   Jake :
   ( September 3rd, 2007 at 6:32 am )

   First off, I have accounts on all the major networks, which I keep up with in Kopete (or Meebo or Portable Gaim when away from my computer). That being said, yes. There are people I will add on Jabber/GTalk so I can catch them when they’re checking their email for a quick question, but they usually talk on AIM. I have one person who has accounts on MSN, AIM, and Y!M, and gets on whichever one he wants to at the time, never more than one. However, I only keep one e-mail address. I mostly use IM anyway.



2. # 2
   Bes :
   ( September 3rd, 2007 at 2:25 pm )
   

   Jake, thanks for the comment and for coming here. I really appreciate it.

   That is interesting, specially about the person who gets on one im program at a time. Portability and im’ing on the move sounds like a good reason to have someone listed on more than one place. Sometimes my conversation with a person will move from one im to another, like from AIM to Yahoo messenger, so that webcam can be started.

   Do you have any contact who talks to you on more than one im account at the same time?

   I have been using Gaim for a while, and just saw Kopete after you mentioned it; it looks nice. Comparing Meebo, Kopete and Gaim, which one do you prefer?



3. # 3
   Jake :
   ( September 3rd, 2007 at 2:41 pm )

   @Bes:

   1. Not really. I do have one friend who uses Kopete on Linux like I do, but sometimes he will use another computer with XP. When he moves there, he will switch over to AIM. We usually talk on MSN for webcams and the like. Occasionally a few friends will all switch to AIM so we can start a chat there. Otherwise, mostly the same for the entire conversation.

   2. Gaim is great featurewise for the most part. It has a variety of plug-ins and well supports the AIM protocol, which is what most of my contacts use. Meebo is nice for general chatting, but it doesn’t support any advanced features. I do like how it works though. Overall I prefer Kopete. It is slightly less featured on the client side, but it has a lot of great plug-ins (though not as many as Gaim, more that are useful to me). It does have a few unique things such as great theming of the chat interface. Though it has but very basic support for AIM, no one I talk to uses these. I do however use some things such as webcams on MSN, which Kopete supports and Gaim doesn’t. They all have pros and cons, but Kopete just works for what I do.



4. # 4
   Louiss :
   ( September 4th, 2007 at 11:34 am )

   I do have same contacts listed on more than one instant messaging. But its really hard to manage these account. I prefer all contact listed in 1 instant messaging.



5. # 5
   Bes :
   ( September 5th, 2007 at 11:46 am )
   

   Jake, thanks for explaining a bit more.

   Regarding #1, I see. I have a few contacts who are on several im’s, and they will also start conversations with me the moment I sign on, through the different im’s. Sometimes it can be hard figuring out who the different windows belong to, specially when their different im accounts have different nicknames. Having a single window can be much, much more efficient in many cases.

   For #2, I like Gaim, and it is very interesting. I have heard a lot about Miranda but it seems harder to use than Gaim; maybe I am missing something. Gaim doesn’t have webcams or audio chat yet, but it makes many things a lot simpler. I have heard a bit about Meebo, though Kopete looks a bit beautiful, specially with the chat themes you mentioned. I will try Kopete sometime, thanks.

   Louiss, thank you for coming and commenting.

   I also prefer contacts in a single im account, or at least one program. Gaim, now called Pidgin, allows me to open and manage more than a dozen im accounts through a single program interface, and saves a lot of time too. Do you use any program like Gaim, or do you always open all the separate im clients simultaneously?



6. # 6
   Jake :
   ( September 5th, 2007 at 2:38 pm )

   @Bes: I take it that you use Gaim on a regular basis. if so, you may want to look into its features a bit more. There are ways to combine contacts from different IM networks and then alias the contacts. If you do this, you will never have to focus on nicknames or different IM networks again.



7. # 7
   Bes :
   ( September 6th, 2007 at 1:35 pm )
   

   Thanks again Jake. Yes, I use Gaim almost daily. I will look into the Gaim/Pidgin options more, thanks. That should also help get rid of duplicate listings of names within the same window in Gaim. For example, it will list the same buddy within the same im protocol under “General” and “Buddies” also.

   Too bad Kopete is not available for Windows [unless I'm missing something]. It has webcam like you said, and it even supports typing and voice chatting with Skype contacts.

   Thanks again Jake. I really appreciate the information.



8. # 8
   pelf :
   ( October 29th, 2007 at 6:03 am )

   I have 2 email addresses that are active. One is for my personal emails, and the other one for everything relating to my blog. But yeah, I do have a few friends who are listed on both my email accounts, and I sometimes find that very confusing (GMail doesn’t allow the switching from one to the other email without logging out, LOL).

   Plus, sometimes people write to me to the “wrong” email. Emails on matters that are related to my blog are sent to my primary account, and vice versa!



9. # 9
   Bes :
   ( October 29th, 2007 at 1:54 pm )
   

   Hi again Pelf, and thank you. That sounds like a nice setup, having only 2 e-mails. I have so many, I know it is inefficient and I have to get rid of some.

   If someone writes to your wrong e-mail address, do you sort such e-mails out based on who is sending them to you or based on the topic of the e-mail?



10. # 10
    pelf :
    ( October 29th, 2007 at 7:18 pm )

    @Bes: If someone sends an email to the “wrong” email address, I would just quickly reply it to resolve the problem. But on top of that, I would also write a short note at the bottom of my reply which says something like, “Please send future emails to my personal email at xyz@gmail.com“.



11. # 11
    Bes :
    ( October 31st, 2007 at 1:40 am )
    

    Thanks for coming back and explaining Pelf. That is a good tip: some people might even take that note as a good sign: “Wow, that is their personal e-mail, I must be important enough to be allowed to e-mail them to their personal e-mail” or vice versa [to a "business" e-mail account].



12. # 12
    Barb :
    ( March 11th, 2008 at 1:48 am )

    My grandson set up an account with msn. How do I set up my own account?



13. # 13
    Bes :
    ( May 2nd, 2008 at 9:13 pm )
    

    Hi Barb. Sorry for the late reply.

    You can go here:

    Windows Live Signup

    And clicking on the link to the right on that page that refers to signing up for a new account. That will help you open a new account with MSN, giving you Msn Messenger [and Windows Live Messenger, since they are basically the same theoretically] account along with Hotmail account and more. Almost all of the free online MSN and Microsoft accounts will be opened for you once you create an account using the above link.

    Is that what you were looking for?



14. # 14
    pritun :
    ( August 15th, 2008 at 12:48 am )

    i have more contacts…

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