George Lockett writes:

Hi Chris

I have updated me IM Platform.

Was woundering if you may cansider intergreating an advice line system similar to what ingenio do on the internet, so that experts can be paid while talking?

http://www.ingenio.com

This could be a new profit centre as you could charge a serice charge and a payment could go to the expert?

Just a thought

George
HealerGeorge

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Ed Howes writes:

Hey Chris,

I hope we get a report on how many authors choose this feature, down the road a ways. Despite the fact that emilyhotbutt, natalie and others have seen my pic, received my Emails and think I’m hot, I have chosen not to use IM for a number of reasons. One, Im not a typist and would keep impatient people waiting too long. Two, the spammers named emily and natalie now trying to seduce me. I have responded telling them it’s Email or nothing. Some come back as failed deliveries, some do not and I have never had a response to an Email reply. Yet, the solicitations are more frequent, they come addressed to me and they are all MSN addresses. Is MSN spamming me to get me to sign up? That would not surprise me and I am planning to divorce MS in the not too distant future.

I see IM as worse than the telephone. I used to say any fool with a quarter can invade your privacy with a phone call. With IM, nobody needs the quarter. :-)

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Lance Winslow writes:

This is a very interesting thing you are doing, very progressive indeed, it makes sense really. It could be very valuable indeed in the future for something? Who knows what the future will bring?

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Pamela Beers writes:

I reserve IM for family chats only, at certain times of the day. Otherwise, I would be interrupted all the time. That’s why I turn off the ring on the phone and have an answering machine.

IM interrupts my writing and research. I find it annoying for the most part. However, I do like George’s idea of a paid advice line. As long as IM was organized with specified time slots, it would work for me.

I’m with Ed. I’d like to see a report on how many authors use this feature.

Hey Ed, you made me smile again with your EmilyHB fan.

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Ed Howes writes:

Pamela,

Thanks for confirming my hunches. Do I understand as suspected, one cannot turn it on and off on line? If one could cloak their online status, IM would be a very useful thing.

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Ed H,

Yeah, you can cloak yourself with IM and that does increase its usefullness.

Example: Right now, I’m uncloaked to everyone at work and my friends all see me as offline (got work to do, you know). :)

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Ed Howes writes:

Chris,

Thanks for the info on behalf of Pamela, myself and probably many others. Is cloaking available universally and are there easy and easy to find instructions on doing so? I can see situations where I would be delighted by interruptions by certain people.

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Christopher M. Knight writes:

Ed H,

It’s part of your IM client.

In Yahoo IM (the one I use), it allows me to be INVISIBLE to all or only to those I want to be invisible to.

Check with your IM software that you use.

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