I also did a search for females with SkypeMe turned on, and it was interesting to see just 4 profiles with this. Female India Skypeme showed up no women at all. Still, I got flooded with calls and messages. I don't really know whether its a slow directory or is the "Hit on me" stigma preventing women from switching it on?

How do I currently cope being a woman on Skype? I'm usually always in an 'away' mode or 'not available'. This is done with a purpose - to keep away intrusions. Friends and colleagues are aware of it and call me anyway. I have allowed calls only from my contact list, but I didn't want to restrict the chats, so that's open. I have tried to put off the 'red-hot-huge' types by a note in my profile that reads : "I'd appreciate it if you sent me a brief message before asking for an authorization, tell me a little bit about you, and your interest in talking to me." Still, on an average day, I get at least 6 requests for authorisation, and several chat messages. I ignore all that do not indicate an interest in some specific area of my work or blog. If they persist more than once, I block them. I try to gauge from the Skype name and profile more about the person trying to contact me - if the person has a blog I tend to start a conversation but RedHotHuge is a definite no-no.

So what does all of this mean for women on Skype? Does it limit our freedom to connect? Are we restricting people who can contact us and sometimes filtering out people who we may find interesting? Does that reduce our reach and potential in communication? How do other women feel - is it a problem, or just a nuisance? Does it prevent them from sharing video capabilities too?

Do men also get hit-on when they are on SkypeMe?

Would love to hear your views on this.

I would like to keep the Skypeme button on - as a person, I am greedy for conversations with people all over the world. It could potentially be such a neat conversation-research-marketing-sales tool, whatever your interest may be. Imagine if a car salesman puts up a small note - best bargains for Toyota Corolla in India against the SkypeMe button, you enter the discussion if you are interested and it's potentially much more rewarding than a cold advertisement. Or someone is initiating a discussion on Julia Cameron's the Artist's Way and sets up a chat topic where you could just click and join and share how you are using the book to unleash your creative juices. Or I am researching MTV promos on air in India or how Skype is changing the way we communicate - and I add this shows up in my SkypeMe profile, with a click to join the discussion. 24/7 global group discussions for free :).

However, for now, its off, as the intrusions are far greater than meaningful conversations. Some issues I hope Skype will address that might help me keep this channel open :

- can we have layered profiling, where I could display different levels of profile to different people - for instance, I am willing to share my photo and contact details with my buddylist, whereas for callers outside of my contact list, I'd rather not.

- is there any way of filtering out and blocking keywords in the text function and the authorisation requests?

Please drop in your suggestions at Skypejournal or here.