Instant message logs

[CBR 0]

I'm just curious about what people use when they submit their Instant Messenger logs. Are you submitting all the diaglog or just the time/date stamps of when you had conversations online?

I just realized that I have every single word we've said to each other online in a log that I could print out but I don't know that I want to do that. We talk on there and on the phone every night for over 4 hours EVERY DAY. Is it really necessary? Is it really helpful? Has anybody ever had that backfire? Like the officer reads into something you said and take it the wrong way and use it against you?

I don't think we have anything like that in our dialog, but i just dont' have alot of trust in the officers based on past experiences at the us/canada border.

[Jeraly 4]

Well - it might be a bit long winded but you could always go through and read different sections from different times - you won't need everything so you could just look conversations every month or so - you can pick ones you think are suitable

I know Jeremy did a screen print of e-mails we had sent to each other showing dates and subject headings - that was like 20 pages long in itself... (prolly shouldn't have sent the whole thing but...)

[Dan J 277]

We printed about 3-4 chats and that was it. Gtalk stores all the chats within gmail, so access to printing them is easy.

[Jeraly 4]

Jeremy is the guru on this so I have sent him an e-mail about it - no doubt you will have a decent answer before he gets back to me though!!!

[Jesse and Hema 2]

We're not going to bother. I'm obviously not an expert, but I figure that IM logs are the weakest form of evidence imaginable, and besides, they (consular officers, etc) aren't overly interested in the super romantic and personal stuff, just certifiable evidence of a relationship.

Instead, we are using things like airplane boarding passes, phone records, letters/cards sent in the mail, photos together, affidavits, stuff like that. We will have a printout of the emails exchanged (just showing dates, subject lines, to/from), but not the contents themselves. Hopefully we won't have any issues.

Good luck!

Edited December 30, 2007 by Jesse G

[Jeraly 4]

Yes but it still shows ongoing communication - maybe an overview of dates would suffice with a couple of conversation examples... Ok - it might not be necessary but I know I would prefer to have too much info than not enough

[CBR 0]

Hmm, well I agree too much is better than not enough. We really don't email back and forth since talking is free on the phone and so is yahoo messenger, plus we play online games together so the Instant Messages is all we really have that is in print (besides my phone record). We don't send stuff in the mail either. Doesnt make much sense when we talk for hours every day.

I like the idea of just taking one conversation per month & printing it. Our conversations are going to sound very odd to anybody who doesn't play the games we play because we talk about that alot.

Thanks for the advice guys!

[MelindaandTarek 0]

I just printed a sample of the chat logs, about one per week or so...and then did a print screen of all the dates of the chats to show the daily contact....and also included emails, phone records, pictures, airline tickets as well....good luck

[Queen Jenn 0]

We're submitting printouts of the conversations, but then Nigeria is a tougher consulate to go through. We need PROOF THROUGH THE ROOF!!!!

[David_n_Amber 3]

I was debating on print out those too since we have like over 5000 pages of chat logs lol.. i guess i'll take the peoples advices and try finding a print out from like every 3rd or 4th week