You Clever IM People Are Driving Me Nuts!

What is the deal with people like Iristyle, josefiend, Mongo, Moribund the Burgermeister and the cheers component? These are the IM names of my "friends" that are currently online in IM. I mean, come on! How the hell am I supposed to find Ethan, Joesephine, Scott, Shawn and Betsy if they hide behind these names?!?

At least Iristyle and josefiend stay the same so that I can learn them, but Mongo, Moribund and cheers are merely temporary based on the quickly changing whims of the people on the other end of the line. I mean, I'm as much in favor of personal expression as the next guy, but not if it stops me from the chief component of the app they're using, e.g. finding them and actually talking to them!

And what's with the guy that has nothing but characters that don't even show up but render as the dreaded square! Can everyone please at least start their cleverness with their first names so that I can find you on the list? That's what Brian Randell [Working at home], Carl Frankline [.NET Rocks!], Fritz [easp.net@torrance], Jeff - [Redmond] and even, LJ, just ducky, thanks, do and they seem like happy, fulfilled people. Thank you!

Plus, while we're on the subject, what is it with MSN Messenger's invitation dialog? How the hell do I know who keith at pluralsight.com is? I know tons of Keiths and I've never heard of www.PluralSight.com (and even now that I know what it is, I haven't a clue what www.PluralSite.com *means*). Can't MSN Messenger give me a name along with the email? I get lots of request to be added to folks IM friend list and I'd like to be able to figure out who I'd like tracking my online life and who I'd prefer to hear from only via email.

Thus endith today's rant. : )