Quickly! Busy yourself!

[Cloudane]

This is of course the awkward thing about MSN - unlike face to face conversations, people can't see that you're already talking to someone else

In most cases with me, I'm not "busying myself" but there are in fact 3 or 4 other people clamoring for my attention too (that's what you get for being a popular guy! hehe). Nobody's necessarily more important than the other, so the time just has to get divided.

I also tend to use MSN as a background chat, so I'll already be surfing or playing a game or whatever and holding a conversation in the background as a second priority. Send a message, play for 10 minutes, send another, etc. I suppose email would be more suited to me, but it's a habit.

The problem arises with those contacts who feel, for whatever reason, that they should be your top priority (e.g. they think they're more important than they are, or they have self-confidence issues and think that you're deliberately ignoring them). They expect you to give them your undivided attention when they're chatting to you, and don't appreciate it when you're doing something at the same time or dealing with other conversations. Once you've got 2 or more of these on your list, things start getting awkward.

I've never used block, but I can see the temptation when that happens.