Is there a way to send a message to people when you don't want to be bothered?

Because just using "set as busy" doesn't really work if you are talking to someone and don't want to get a million IMs from people, or for example, I have 3 different businesses, including a club..and most of my IM's come from the club, but I have 2 managers for this purpose, so that when I am busy on another job (my building business, for example) I'd like to be able to have an automated message sent to ppl that im from the club, letting htem know I am busy and that they can contact one of the managers instead. If I just set as busy, then each time I say something to my co workers at the building company, it'll automatically set me as available again. Is there a solution like I discribed? and where can I go to get it?

Personally I hope there isn't - if I got messages from people up front telling me not to bother with them I'd take their advice in full.

Whoops, accidentally hit enter there.

Make a group PURELY for your staff not your punters and use it to send out messages advising you'll be busy via IM/notice maybe.

Well, any solution certainly wouldn't be scripted because scripts cannot see agent-to-agent IMs. I can imagine a special-purpose client being created that could do such a thing, but I don't think there's a way to do that with any existing clients. An alt would be of some help here, but obviously not a total solution, unless you divest a whole business or two to alts.

To my knowledge there is no way to decide who sees the message and who doesn't.

If it really drives you nuts, I can only suggest making alts. They are free and you would make one for each business.

For example, you are concentrating on your building but getting bothered by the club. Make an alt and tell your managers that you can be contacted via <name>. So therefore the managers kinda filter the IMs and only the important ones get through to you. Just remind your managers to not give out your alt name.

If you don't want to jump through all those hoops, you are going to have to be firm and tell these people that you are concentrating on something and can't have a lengthy conversation. Tell them that you managers would be happy to assist them and if there is something that the managers can not handle, the managers will get a message to you.

Make an Alt?

You could let your Building colleagues and your Club Managers know its name but not make it widely known to club-goers, who would get an 'offline' message from your Main.

[Edit: ^-^ crossed in the post...]

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't make the message say "I'm busy, do not bother me"...lol It would more like "I'm busy working on another project, please contact [manager] or [manager] if you need assistance." I'm pretty sure that ppl wouldn't take that the wrong way...lol But thanks for the last half of your post, that part is a good idea..

I got very happy recently when I heard that Daisy Rimbaud had such an IM proxy, which intercepts and automatically responds to IMs. Then I realized that it requires the Restrained Life client, yikes. So, if that's your gig, go to Daisy's store, it's free.

Hmmpf. If LL had a decent Presence Server, this sort of notification would be built into Friends list management, as many IM clients in fact now have.

LOL sorry ... I'm sure you wouldn't. Came out far more seriously than it was intended I think.

Agreed. And also the ability to sort friends lists into priorities and subcategories.

I've not tested this, but I think a person that has "set to busy" can still send an IM without unsetting the busy mode.

IF that is the case, drop all your co-worker's calling cards into a folder and use that to start an IM Conference. That way, you can all chat in IMs and those that don't want to be disturbed can set to busy. This also allows for conversations to continue even if someone needs to TP elsewhere to get something, or to help someone out in another sim.

~Jessy

Are your managers listed on the front page of your profile? As a busniess person in SL I check profiles for contact information before contacting business owners. If they have a listed manager I contact the manager first.

What is the Restrained Life client?

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There is a place in preferences.... communications tab to put in a response for IM you get in busy mode.

I'd be happy for an option where:

IM tabs don't ding and blink annoyingly, maybe just show in some tasteful shade of green, and which persist beyond logout if you don't open them, so you can pick them up later if you need to leave in a hurry, or crash, or otherwise logout for any reason.

Otherwise, an alt and checking the option to send IMs to email is a good compromise. You can get some work done, talk to a small group of people, and you don't lose the bulk of your IMs.