uhhh you know you can go into the settings and click "Don't pop up a thing showing when I get a message so I don't accidentally click it"

you can also set youself to busy! so it doesn't go "BEEPBOOPBAPBOOP" in the middle of your screen C: sill bird, trix are for kids

No, when someone calls me in the middle of the game, or starts a new conversation with me, it alt-tabs
Im not talking about the little thing in the corner. When Skype opens a new conversatoin window for me, it tends to minimize my game.

Also, cant leave a conversation by just closing the window. Irritating. Little things like that, the polish of the entire program is lacking. STOP USING IT!

Most IM programs make popups when a new conversation starts. I can't say I've ever had the problem of it interrupting my games though. I find that I like it more than other IM programs because it had good file sharing and voice and a logging system that spans multiple devices.

its pretty hard to stop using it when WLM is shutting down FOREVER in just two months, and their handing EVERYTHING of theirs over to skype, untill microsoft shuts down their servers forever, and, I play games and have never had skype alt tab on me, its always yahoo that does that for me.

I like it cause it saves logs forever and can go back to it whenever I need. :> Glad it did; many conversations with my family and friends on there that I would hate to not have because I didn't know to save it.

The calling in game thing can be annoying and has gotten me killed in LoL or other games many times. That's why I try to play Windowed - Fullscreen for most of them and thankfully, people tend to ask me if they want to call me before hand. That way if I don't respond, they know not to call me.

Never had a problem with a new convo sorta thing.

I have a MSN account and many friends on it. I outright told them that either they move to AIM/Yahoo/GTalk or I'm sorry we're going to have to stop chatting.

I am not moving over to Skype.

Heartily seconded. Skype is shit for text chatting. Absolute shit. I've never had the focus stealing issue you're describing, but I've also never had people call me without already being in a conversation with them.

i keep slapping windows and keeping skype as a older BETTER version.

i also edit the settings so it doesn't make the default annoying beep.....replaced it with the dialog beep from zelda OoT xD(a lot less annoying). have no clue why it alt+tabs you....it shouldn't do that. DX

i personally like skype when you learn its inner functions and stuff. until trillian actually gets better skype support like actually saving group chats i don't see myself leaving skype any time soon.

but if you want you can try trillian so you can talk on skype without its interface.

I have had the exact opposite experience. Skype is almost perfect, from what I've seen and done with it.

When I found out that the MSN servers were going to shut down, I was pretty panicky about what I'd do for a new messenger. I don't like Skype. I don't see why people use it. But a friend showed me QQ International. It's everything MSN SHOULD'VE been. Not to sound like a whore, but by all means! Give QQ International a shot and see what you think. The text chat is top notch. It has some audio and video chat support, can't say I'd use it. I generally only use voice chat for gaming, which means TeamSpeak for me. QQ is also a very light-weight program! [/shameless promo]

Link: https://www.imqq.com

Thats why I use versoin 4 of skype as it is less cluster****ed and more stable. Never really had a problem with it ever, just sometimes when I was using my notebook but that was more to do with my computer than Skype.

I use Skype IM for work which is just... always on. Having it on 'busy' at all times helps a lot (just like I keep my status as 'away' on other IMs) with the rude window behaviour like task switching and minimising things. I don't know what's the windows UI like now, when I used it on Windows a year ago or so, not long after MS acquired Skype, it was just starting to get terrible so I see your point there.

Nestie, you are using Trillian though, right? Have you seen this? http://blog.trillian.im/?p=2366

I found it uber-annoying and uninstalled it, then had to scour through my registry to get rid of entries post-uninstallation that kept trying to upgrade its software I had uninstalled >_<

I hate voice chatting to boot anyway. Much more comfortable with a keyboard than my voice.