Words are inadequate

Fwiw, I have found that there is always a period of adjustment when one starts IMing a new person--okay, how do I capitalize, how many emoticons do we use, which ones signify which emotions--and it is a little exhausting but eventually evens out between each person's default style.

Not to imply that you just have to push through that part! and it will be great! because no., but just as another data point; especially early on in IMing someone (even if it's with someone I already know offline/in another online context--this happened with my sister), I am willing to forgive a lot of misunderstanding because we are still forming our own particular IM style. And there is an effort on my part to understand their IM quirks as well as to make my own comprehensible. If that...makes sense at all.