G-Chat Etiquette

I’ve been a GChatter since it first appeared in my GMail.  That was back when you had to be invited to GMail, remember those days?  How special one felt for having GMail, so exclusive, exciting!  Facebook was similar, in order to be a member you had to have a college e-mail.  I didn’t.  But I had a GMail account!

Now everybody does, and we’re all the same in the eyes of Google.  I don’t mind conformity, but I do feel there should be some general rules of etiquette we all should follow when it comes to GChat useage.

- If you’re going to include a picture to accompany your username, make it a pic of yourself.  I don’t need NYChomie806548 sending me a chat request with a pic of Joan Crawford.  Joan Crawford is not a resident of NYC nor my homie.

- There’s no point repeatedly asking “Are you there?” if I’m not responding.  I’m not there.  Well I might be.  But I could avoiding you.  Life’s rough, deal with it!

THE BIGGEST ETIQUETTE RULE EVERY GCHATTER SHOULD FOLLOW

- Don’t write a novel.  It’s GChat, not “Let’s write a memoir” hour!  Keep it simple, keep it sweet, one or two sentences, then wait for a response.  The Gchat window is already tiny, and I don’t want to have to scroll everytime to read what you’ve written.

Phew, glad I got that my chest (or fingertips I mean).