Offline messaging in the Windows Live Messenger beta is not very well implemented: you can send people offline messages, but if they are using a program that only supports an older version of the MSN protocol (eg Windows Messenger, MSN Messenger 7.x), the messages don't seem to be delivered. And you're not told that they aren't, so the offline messages essentially disappear into the abyss.

[Addendum: I sent someone using MSN 7.5 an offline message and later he got it, albeit when I was online. Others also received the offline messages while using MSN 7.5 (and when I was offline), so maybe it works most of the time.]

Hell, I sent one of my accounts an offline message using another account, and it didn't go through (I used the Windows Live Messenger beta to connect to both), so that tells you something.

I also suspect it is harder to sign on to Windows Live Messenger-enabled passport accounts with third party clients, but I haven't gathered any information on that yet besides limited anecdotal data.

Also, MSN 8 is, if anything, even more bloated and ad-filled than MSN 7.x - something I would normally think impossible, but after seeing what happened between MSN 6.x and 7.x, hardly a surprise. A-Patch for MSN Messenger goes some way towards solving this problem, as far as that is possible while still using MSN native.

In any event, I have 4 0 Windows Live Messenger beta invites to give away to the first 4 people who leave a comment on this post with their email addresses. Priority will be given to those whose email addresses/nicknames I recognise (eg Those who have commented here in the past).