Where Is The Invisible Status iChat?
People who have me added to their iChat buddy list will know my trend of signing in, then promptly signing out. I don’t venture into iChat often to have social conversations with people, that’s what Skype’s for. When I’m seen logging on and off iChat, it’s usually to check if someone I’m looking for is on, if they’re not, I log off.
This trend has become more and more noticeable recently, one of the readers to this blog, Smaran Dayal, decided he’d make a term for my log in log out iChat vogue.
Pull A Wolsey
Verb
1. To log in to an instant messaging service for fewer than 10 seconds and abruptly log out, ignoring a barrage of messages from worshippers of your Internet avatar : Haha, I just pulled a wolsey on you!
One of my major gripes about Apple’s iChat is the lack of an “Invisible” status option. It’s such a small feature, yet one with such a great meaning. iChat’s open-source counterpart Adium has had this feature since as far as I can remember, which I’d love to see incorporated into the next version of iChat.
If Apple include an Invisible status option in iChat, I’ll be able to stay online 24/7, eliminating the dreadful “Pull A Wolsey.”
What are your Instant Messaging rules? Do you stay online 24/7 but use different statuses, or do you just log on for a specific reason?
#1
Edward Scherf → edwardscherf.com
What I do to prevent this is to use 2 accounts. A personal account for social conversations with friends and whatnot. And another one strictly for co-workers and clients or people I need to talk to regularly. This seems to work pretty well and usually keeps me from “Pulling A Wolsey” on people. :P
#2
alej744Steve Jobs specifically mentioned that Invisibility will be available in iChat 4, in Leopard. Along with tabs and all that fun stuff.
#3
DeathAxe → justincomparable.com
I just use Adium. I think that iChat sucks.
I use the Invisible status a lot, especially on MSN.
#4
yannic → yannicwalter.de
I use Adium as well. I mainly use the online status, because I often forget to change it when I’m afk.
My friends are pissed, because I’m online but not responding when they type something.
#5
DaveI’d love an invisible feature for iChat 4. What I usually do when I want to just see who is available is sign on as away, so my status goes from offline right to away. That way people won’t expect you to be online expecting to chat with you.
#6
Smaran → smarandayal.com
I use Adium, too. It’s open source and it rocks. I need to be logged into MSN, Gtalk and AIM at the same time. And I have a couple of friends on Yahoo!, too.
About being disturbed: 1. I don’t have as many people IMing me as you do, Glenn. 2. If I’m getting disturbed I just set my status to busy and let my auto-reply bot handle everyone.
#7
MacFreak → macfreak.wordpress.com
I also, I use Adium. It’s great.
#8
Pierre Lourens → honestchaos.com
Adium > iChat. This is where my fanboyism loyalty drops short. Sorry Apple.
#9
wphj → www.wphj.wordpress.com
I use Adium, mostly because it’s skinnable and takes up less space. Invisble is my favorite feature!
I go online when I want to chat, I don’t leave it open, but I sometimes don’t want to chat with EVERYONE that’s on…
#10
Jack Sauer → jacksauer.com
I snapped a screenshot when Glenn was online once…
I will upload it for all to worship…
#11
Michael → www.whalesalad.com
It’s called Adium. :)
iChat is for noobs.
Oh yes and for the record, Paul Stamatiou is infamous for “Pulling a Wolsey”, he might have even started the trend. haha.
#12
alej744I use Adium but when Leopard comes out, I’m definitely switching back. (and not for the Invisibility feature, I could care less about that.)
#13
Jeremy → jeremyfriedland.com
online 24/7 but mostly away, only talk to people i want to, other wise I just say I have to go. Adium is by far better the ichat.
#14
zzap → zzaps.com
I’m on 24/7, just with the ‘Away’ status, or a-like. People know not to talk to me unless I’m ‘online,’ because they’d just be wasting their time.
#15
Ryan → appleication.com
I am sorry but I don’t think Adium can really be compared to iChat in that iChat supports audio and video, not only instant messaging, however for plain IM’ing Adium is 10 times better.
#16
josue → www.madeincr.com
I just don’t reply to IMs if I don’t feel like it. I’m always away.
#17
Keenan → keendog.blogspot.com
Why do you use Skype for social conversations? Unless you’re using the voice or video chat part, I think that the text chats are inferior to both iChat and Adium.
-Keenan
#18
Glenn Wolsey → www.glennwolsey.com
Keenan, I use Skype for voice calls, as iChat lacks with quality in this area currently.
#19
Joseph → www.iniblog.com
I’m logged into Adium 25/7. I’m available for pretty much from 3PM to 11-12PM EST on weekdays.
#20
Ryan Ponce → www.ryanponce.com
I don’t really use anything rather that AOL IM, so iChat works fine for me. Adium looks great, but I don’t think I’d use it for different IM accounts.
#21
Sam Ryan → samhasa.com
Invisibility is really the only feature I can think of that would improve iChat.
#22
ChrisAdium for chat, Skype for video. Hardly anyone I know has a .mac account so iChat is useless for me. I wanna be able to chat to ppl whilst invisible on Adium like you can on Windows Live Messenger…is it just me or is this not possible on Adium?
#23
Gedeon Maheux → iconfactory.com
I use iChat at work since we constantly send files back and forth from Laguna, to Stockholm and back to Greensboro. Adium, while awesome, still has *major* problems with file transfers even with the 1.1 version. Its frustrating as all hell I have to say.
At home, I use Adium and the invisible feature all the time, and its great. I really do wish iChat had it as well, but I guess we’ll all have to wait until October until we can get our hands on it. :-}