MSN Messenger (you will likely be using Windows Live Messenger, but I don't have XP and can't upgrade to it) lets you set your online status to inform friends whether you are at the computer or not. And I seem to be the only person who believe the status really reflects the person's online status.
I only set my status to "away" or "busy" if I cannot or do not want to reply to an incoming message. If other people set their statuses to something other than "online", I assume they are not available for chatting and refrain from messaging them.
Some people obviously disagree with my interpretation of the statuses, or they just choose to ignore them. I have had people IM'ing me even though I was "away" -- and I really was away. Sometimes the person who initiated the conversation was himself marked "away". I assume they were trying to avoid talking to certain people, though the "appear offline" setting would be much more effective. Alternatively, they can do what I do -- kill the damned memory-hogging program. Anyway, I digressed.
Maybe when my friends message the "away" me, they are just chancing on me not really being away and therefore will reply. They might be right, in that I might really be at the computer. However, that doesn't change the fact that I don't want to be disturbed. To discourage this behaviour, I have adopted the policy of not answering messages if I am "away" or "busy", even if I am at the computer and can answer it. Of course there will be exceptions but if I do break the rule I obviously don't mind the disruption.
The bottom line is this: if I am "away", you won't be getting an answer any time soon, one way or another.
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