I see what you mean, but, personally, I'd much rather have the recipient ignore me than get yanked out of 'the zone' with my query that may or may not be up the

I see what you mean, but, personally, I'd much rather have the recipient ignore me than get yanked out of 'the zone' with my query that may or may not be up their alley. It is not so much pleasantries as a super-short 'SYN-ACK' and then straight to the point. Also, as I was mentioning in another comment, people on my realtime communication media contact list are quite close - the kind who would definitely respond to a SYN-req with stoic silence. I guess, it is a communication quirk that has evolved around my network and may not be true about the rest of the world. Apologies if I made it sound like that. As I said in another comment, to each their own. Shall we agree to differ on this one? :)