The rap sheet of bad IM behaviors concludes with a look at pickling, a process in which previously private conversations are logged and kept--and posted online--without permission from all participants. Worse, this sort of attack comes not from weird strangers, but from people who are allegedly your friends.
Angela explains that you can configure your IM software to save a log of your conversations. That's handy if you use IM for project planning, or if you'd like to retain a record of some particularly witty or wonderful exchange. But Steve notes that if you say something particularly spicy, outrageous, or stupid, you may spend the rest of your days wondering if your so-called friends might not log it and make the log available, either through e-mail or on the Web, to others.
Angela finds most conversations ("convos") that don't involve herself boring, and if you're wondering what sort of convos get pickled, a search on Google for convos will enlighten you as to why that's so. But Steve strongly advises all hands not to write anything in instant messaging that you wouldn't mind anyone--your boss, your spouse, or your kids--seeing online with your screen name attached.
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