I love rants so I had to read this.

I'm wondering if this was actually directed at me:

"Not everyone knows what you deem as being proper ettiquette in IM, it's a learning process and we all have our own "sets of standards/ettiquette"
If it was, it's a valid point.

If it wasn't, it certainly could have been.

I "ignore" emails, skype messages, facebook messages, tweets, voicemails that are just "hey, how's it going" or "give me a call back" without any degree of what we're talking about.

BUT, I'm not prejudice about it. I do that with EVERYONE.

And I don't just mean in IM and business land... I mean with friends too.

Unless I'm 10+ year best friends with them (that's a short list of 5 or 6 that I still keep in touch with) or they are family... I need to know what we'll be talking about and why the reason for the skype convo, the facebook convo, the phone call etc.

I rarely pickup my phone and I often direct calls right to voicemail automatically without it even ringing through.

But on my end, it DEFINITELY has nothing to with who is worthy. For example, I add anyone as a friend on facebook not just those "worthy". I add anyone as a skype contact. And I make my contact info VERY readily available.

So, again, whether it was targetted at something I had said or not, it definitely could be because I share that "etiquette" arguement.

But a rebuttal to that is, without some sort of filter, we'd all be investing time with chit chat and unproductive conversations all around us.

While it may offend or may seem arrogant (regardless of who does it), the reality is TIME IS PRECIOUS. I don't know a single soul who would feel comfortable just contacting me and saying "hey, can you send me $100 Rob". Yet money can be created, time can't. Yet I run into a lot of situations where it's basically "hey, can I TAKE 30 minutes of your time". To me the $100 is actually more of a fair proposition. ;-)

It's a 2 way street though. I'd never expect or want someone to give me any of their time either unless there's some reason, some purpose there. If it's an established relationship, naturally that's more likely to happen. Otherwise, there has to be a clear reason for here's why we're talking.

Or at least, that's the case in my world.

Great points though. I'm an offender for the "ignore" comments in your rant. But it's a system that is necessary for me to maintain focus and time. By no means is it the RIGHT mode of operating or some universal requirement... but, for me, it's a necessity. And that decision comes with it's pros and consequences. Pros = I'm in charge of my time not individuals with random time agendas I know nothing about. Cons = it may come across arrogant and annoy the wrong people.

Welcome to JV Notify, by the way.