keenmaster486 wrote:

This just in, in late December of 2018, from what I hear the old ICQ legacy protocol was disabled.

I last tried to get back on in '08 or '09, because I had a 6-digit UIN starting with 6 I thought it would be cool to have an "old number".

Shame it's gone, it was a pretty neat era.

Aw, I have a UIN in the 290,000s. 🙁

They must've gotten hit by a rash of Vogons trying to log in with an ancient protocol that nobody remembered was still even in the server codebase, and ripped all of it out. heheh

OK, someone needs to RE the protocol and stand up a new server. Flower power 4 eva. 😁

Yes it was. I had just started using it again with another forum member and then it was canned. Coincidence? Were we the last two people alive using it? The old ICQ app stopped working. We then found a newer version, but still old, that worked in Jaunary, but within a few days, it had mysteriously updated in the background without warning. Using the new app defeated the point and it had some issue in which you couldn't tell if your friends were online. If I were ICQ, I would bring back the retro look and feel to their program. I cannot imagine a sole using the new app.

I just tried icq on Android with my old 8 digit number and it works shows all my contacts from late 90s

You must have migrated your ICQ to a version later than 99b at some point, which resaved your contacts in one of the newer databaes. When I installed 2003b recently, my contacts from 99b had disappeared, except for the one contact I added in around 2003. I did not use ICQ past 99b for general use. I installed 2003 back in December, which was the oldest, still classic, version to work.

yes this is correct I remember logging in the last 3 or 4 years to have a look

I tried to register using version 99, 2001, and 5.0, but none were able to access the servers.

I think the oldest version which works now is version 8.x. It retains some [but minimal] classic feel to it, but within a few days, it magically turns into the latest version which is unbearable.

It would be nice to have a new instant messaging program that works on old OS's and interfaces with modern chats like Groupme.

I had ICQ too back in the days, I can't remember my UIN though. But I also used mIRC in Brazilian networks. Never chatted in other networks.

I have mIRC 5.91 installed in a DOSBOX environment running WFWG 3.11 and it still works.

As for ICQ, if I were to use it, I'd do it in one of my VMWare machines (W98 or W2000). But dunno about which ICQ version to use. I got Opera to run with KernelEX, so at least WWW browsing is somewhat possible. Next, I have to set up Outlook Express (on all machines - WFWG3.11, W98 and W2000) to work properly.

I used ICQ a lot, and MSN Messenger too. I was never a fan of Skype or some other messaging programs. When I moved from Windows to MacOS X, in 2010, I used Adium to have both ICQ and Messenger. Then WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger came in and we all know what happened.

EDIT: I actually, logged in through the ICQ web version on my macbook and there are just two old contacts there. Thanks iCloud for saving my UIN passwords hahahahaha

We need "iMessage for desktop" except it's open source, highly portable, very lightweight, and decentralized. Everyone connects to a single master network that connects All The Servers, and anyone can run a server on the network.

That sounds a little like IRC.

SirNickity wrote:

That sounds a little like IRC.

But IRC does not have a single master network. Also all messages stored on the server and retrievable after the fact, and support for attachments, reactions, etc.

I've been using IRC for around 25 years. I think one of the downfalls of IRC was the overwhelming number of networks to choose from - EFNET, UNDERNET, DALNET, etc. Nobody wanted to login to another network to talk to someone who only wanted to use one particular network.

I just tried my ICQ number on the web app (why I still remember it I don't know) and quite a few of the people I remember are still listed "seen a long time ago". I quit using it in the early 2000's.

IRC was fun using an old machine to connect until people started posting urls that needed a more modern machine to use. I remember using a 386DX/40 or an old 68K mac on IRC while in the basement working on old machines.

Unknown_K wrote:

IRC was fun using an old machine to connect until people started posting urls that needed a more modern machine to use. I remember using a 386DX/40 or an old 68K mac on IRC while in the basement working on old machines.

I've been using IRCJR on my 286. Yep - obviously you can't see any image links but it's still a ton of fun!

For some reason I never got into IRC. Not sure why.
ICQ was the first instant messenger I used. I think I was active between 1996 and 2001. I left ICQ for two reasons. The first is that after 2001, the client was somewhat broken and a nightmare to use. Secondly, everyone I knew abandoned it and there was nobody to talk to. It's a shame that AOL sacrificed ICQ to push their own instant messager, AIM, which I always thought was a piece of crap. These days ICQ is more of a client for phones, with the desktop being somewhat buggy and ignored.

I am also somewhat unsure of which client to use now. I am absolutely not going to install some garbage like What'sapp, Snapchat, Facebook messenger or whatever the hell google calls the replacement for gtalk. I was previously using gtalk with pidgin, and after they bumped support I've not been able to chat with others except by phone and e-mail. I setup a jabber account, but nobody else is willing to install it.

I predict the wave of the future is going to be Microsoft Netmeeting.

ICQ went to hell after Mirabilis sold it off and now some Russians own it so I would not use it if you paid me. I knew a few people who preferred AIM and I wanted nothing to do with AOL.

Everybody has an email account or cell phone you can text. Even homeless people have Facebook accounts they can use at the local library. Getting a msg to somebody today is not as hard as it was in 2000.

I talk to one guy from Vogons on IRC. I predict an IRC revival instead. People (or just me?) are getting fed up with all the change and bling of online messaging. Simplify your life, use IRC.

Google Hangouts still works for me. When the wife is out of town (now), she uses it to talk to the kids w/video.

I agree, there's not much to improve on good ol' IRC unless you need video. I have zero desire to get involved with the latest fad in messaging, so I stopped bothering to keep up with whatever became today's hottest method of exchanging text over a network after people began moving from ICQ to AIM or MSN or whatever reheated example of the same old concept someone cared to come up with.

I don't have anything in particular against casual messaging services hosted in Russia, but I definitely don't trust Facebook.