• Periodically I block all incoming requests to be added to my list. This generally happens when there is a sudden upsurge in requests from Russian ladies of questionable virtue who seem to have software at their disposal to troll exposed IM addresses and annoy innocent folks like me. If you find that you simply are not succeeding in contacting me then send me an e-mail with your ICQ (Miranda) number. I will then add you manually and send you a notification.
• You must authorize me to add you to my list. I keep students on my list for the school year only (unless I know they are taking a class with me the following year).
• If you wish not to have your online hours noted by me simply make yourself "invisible" to me. It's not a problem.
• I almost never initiate contact. Please don't feel slighted or ignored. I figure if you have something important to ask/say, you will make the first move.
• Detailed questions are often best handled via e-mail.

If you are a student or teacher from another school and you wish to use ICQ to communicate with me, you also will have to authorize me to add you to my list. I generally do not add students from other schools unless there is some significant reason to do so. I am happy, however, to field occasional questions by e-mail

As an added note, I have recently abandoned the actual ICQ software in favor of the open-source project called Miranda. This is a small (about 500 K) program which has protocols available for most of the popular IM software but without the annoying advertisements. You can select only the features you want from an ever-expanding list of plug-ins. I have found it to be a welcome alternative to the AOL-gobbled and predictably bloated monster that ICQ has become. More information is available here.

Students who don't wish to tackle the installation of yet another IM client can always use the web version of ICQ found here. You will still need to register to obtain a number, of course (link on same page), so be sure to give the least possible information if you do so in order to protect your privacy.