Apparently when you upgrade Skype, your settings go back to allowing any and all people to bother you with phone calls and chat requests.
We’ll now return to a blog NOT all about Skype (just felt I should close this loop).
I didn’t want to talk about skype again…but one of those damned creepy "i-didn’t-add-any-of-these-FIFTY-people-wtf??" chat windows showed up on my desktop again…
Grrrr…
This window just popped up:
Not one of these people are on my list of contacts…and lately I’ve noticed a sharp drop in the number of random people trying to get me to add them since I went from decent photo of me to the friendly pink and purple dragon you see above. That’s been another thing that has irked me about Skype…even when I’ve exhausted the "make me as not searchable as possible" options, I was still getting mandoms fairly frequently.
So. Skype’s been open for three hours. This message is apparently over one day old. And not one of these people have been added by me, nor do I recall getting any add requests in the last week or so.
Weird. And super creepy. I think I’m going to go find the old version of Skype…now version 2.5’s bugginess isn’t so much getting in the way of company communications…it just became personal.
I swear…last blog post about Skype today. Hopefully.
Moving back down a version in Skype will mean temporarily saying goodbye to one of the best new things about Skype 2.5.
The huggy bear.
If you rolled your eyes that I was making such a fuss about the presence status button, than I absolutely suggest giving 2.5 a go - imagine all the times you’ve wanted to give someone on the other end a bear hug. Now you can. And let me tell you - it’s friggin’ amazing. Here’s a screenshot of the little guy down there in action:
Much to my delight, in the comments from my previous post below was a long, wonderfully articulated response to my rant:
Dear Rachel (I hope, this time the name is correct),
First of all, I’d like to apologize to you (and to your boss,
Stephanie) for causing such a discontent with my reply. I will now try
to explain some details.
1. Skype does not have an updates mailing list. There is an
automatic check for the update in Skype client, which is supposed to
notify you about the new Skype versions. But… As your current version
of Skype client has problems with presence status detection, it is also
possible that the new Skype version release will not be detected
automatically and you will not get a notification. That is why I
suggested to "manually" check for update.
2. Skype company does not encourage our users to downgrade Skype
software. The reason is quite simple. Skype is currently in the phase,
when it develops rapidly and it’s the only way to stay at leading
position on VoIP market, where Skype currently is. That is why we
prefer to investigate any unknown issues and improve our software, than
just to advise an older version, and this is the main reason why we do
not widely provide older versions of Skype.
Users, who cannot use Skype at all after upgrading (i.e. Win98 users
may experience problems, as this OS is no more supported by Skype), can
always search the Internet for older versions. Some sites sites offer
this (i.e.: http://www.oldversion.com/). May be, I should’ve advised
this solution to you, but I thought that "incorrect presence status" is
not a problem of vital importance, and I again apologize, if it really
is for your company.
3. The the reason for getting Stephanie’s name wrong was the
"misunderstanding" between her e-mail client and the client we use here
at Skype. In the first support request Stephanie filled the name-field
in the request form as "Stephanie Phillips" and in her second letter,
her name was "Phillips, Stephanie" (automatically set by the e-mail
client, I believe). That is why the automatically added header was
addressed to Phillips.
I agree, my mistake was not to check that, but with all that amount of
e-mails we get from Skype users, you can sometimes not pay attention to
such details. Anyway, please forward my apologiez to Stephany for this
technical mistake.
I hope, the above will shed some light on the situation and make you
a loyal and supportive Skype user, who understands that the way to the
perfection is full with difficulties. "Per Aspera Ad Astra…", as they
used to say. 
Regards,
Roman
Skype Customer Support.
Roman, you rule. And yes, while what you said shed light on the situation, the fact that you responded (and in such a well thought out and articulated way) is the reason why I will continue to be a loyal and supportive user who is often telling people they’ve got to try Skype.
I’ve done customer service on an absolutely miniscule scale compared to what he’s dealing with on a daily basis; his job isn’t easy. We’re cranky, we’re put out, and we want answers. Roman clearly takes his job seriously and is representing the company he is a part of extremely well. It’s not easy sometimes to articulate the right reply to a customer inquiry. But it takes a ton more courage and time to respond to said whiny customer in this much more public format.
My hats off to you Roman. You’re what makes big companies human, and it’s very very much appreciated.
