It makes me feel so stupid, but it happens all the time. I’ll be looking at my Trillian* buddy list and I have no idea who 25% of these people are. And those who I do know, I sometimes get confused. “that is either Mary or Jane, but I have no idea which!”
So am I alone? I leave them on for a long time out of guilt, then I finally delete them. I used to IM them and say “who is this?” but I got tired of feeling like an idiot.
*a program that lets you use AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, MSN and IRC all in one application. Very useful for those of us that already run too many programs at once.
I manage my ICQ contact list in a similar way. I delete some names after a point comes when I cant even remember why I added them there in the first place…
My closest online friend is from Ilford, near London. She, in turn, has a very closeknit circle of IRL friends who all chat to each other online, and who all have my Yahoo ID on their machines. I know all their names, and all their Yahoo IDs, but I just can’t match them up. Whenever one of them messages me with “Hiiii Andrew, how’s it goin’?”, I have to say, “Look, I’ll come clean. Which one are you again??” Luckily, they’re all used to my vague ways by now. I still feel like a right goose though.
Opal, I’m actively lobbying AOL to create a Nemesis List. This way I won’t be wasting precious hours plotting the demise of those who no longer appear on it.
A UPS truck bounces Brithael into a back bayou where he’s bled to death… bink he disappears from my Nemesis Window.