ICQ

[Aaron Stern]

I just noticed that some fellow YNAI-nudies have "ICQs". I've never heard about it; what exactly is that (sorry, I'm completely ignorant here). Aaron

[flieguy]

Gawd I havent heard of ICQ for ages!! It was the first of the MSN/Yahoo type communication programs. When I was mid-teens we used it all the time, I havent used ICQ for sooo long its ridiculous!

Now if you really wanna go back we could mention mIRC!

[HelicopterBob]

Hmmm... I have wondered abot ICG my seelf Aaron.  I remember back in high school hearing about it.  But it was only from my european friends and it involved a lot of numbers- something that I don't handle very well.

[Pyre]

Yeah I used to use ICQ. I even remember my member number! As Flieguy said, it was one of the first messaging systems that a lot of young people used to use before things like yahoo and msn took over. I think it's still going though!

[Delta]

It's an instant-messenging system closely related to AIM. You are uniquely identified by a 9-digit number, so you can keep your e-mail adress private and still not be limited in the choice of nicknames. Its technical similarity to AIM (using the same protocol) led to interoperability since AOL took over ICQ. My IM of choice.

if you wonder what an instant messenger is, imagine a chat room for only two people with a contact list to choose chat partners from.

[Noodie]

Yeah, I still have ICQ - but I haven't used it for (literally) years. It sits idle on my desktop...

I was never a big fan of the program in the first place. It's one of those things that, once upon a time, you felt you had to install because everyone else had it. 

It just became the most horrible piece of bloatware, once AOL bought it from Mirabilis. That and the well-known security problems with it put a lot of people off. AOL (like so many others, it seems) never seemed able to grasp the fact that all people wanted was a simple instant messenger. They had to put all sorts of unnecessary bells and whistles on it.

[Delta]

Yeah, I still have ICQ - but I haven't used it for (literally) years. It sits idle on my desktop...

I was never a big fan of the program in the first place. It's one of those things that, once upon a time, you felt you had to install because everyone else had it. 

It just became the most horrible piece of bloatware, once AOL bought it from Mirabilis. That and the well-known security problems with it put a lot of people off. AOL (like so many others, it seems) never seemed able to grasp the fact that all people wanted was a simple instant messenger. They had to put all sorts of unnecessary bells and whistles on it.

the reason I switched clients instead of upgrading.

[barefootphotographeruk]

Wow, am I really the only one here who still uses ICQ?

OK, admitidly, it has more rubbish now than any other messenger in the world, but it is multi-protocol now (nothing particulary new) but does interface with both the ICQ and AIM Networks nicely.

___________
Barefoot Will

[HelicopterBob]

Well thank you all the great info.  But it sounds like I will just stick with what I got.

[Wolf]

I kind of half-way use it, in that i dont have any friends activly on it, but since i use Trillian, im always connected to it (as well as the other 3)

Icq was great in that it was pretty much the first, however since yahoo, then aim and msn came out, they are far easier to use. ICQ's problem was that UIN numer, while it make you unique, it was hard to remember easily so was kinda a pain to give out/keep track of, which is proly why the other big 3 took over popularity wise, even tho it isnt quite as private, but in an IM system when you want to contact people, too much privacy kinda hinders that..

Anyhoo Im still on it, with my original number, which compared to later peeps, is a pretty low one heh.

[Aaron Stern]

Hey, Wolf, good to hear from you, how have you been, everything going a-o.k.?
You wrote,

Im still on it, with my original number, which compared to later peeps, is a pretty low one heh.

I'm glad you're talking about your ICQ number being a low one; with me, un-
fortunately, it's still a low IQ number  . Take care, Aaron

[Toffer]

our puter has it and i have used it b4.  I know Dan has tons of times cause its got way more international people on it then anything else I think.

Chris

[Delta]

Hey, Wolf, good to hear from you, how have you been, everything going a-o.k.?
You wrote,

Im still on it, with my original number, which compared to later peeps, is a pretty low one heh.

I'm glad you're talking about your ICQ number being a low one; with me, un-
fortunately, it's still a low IQ number  . Take care, Aaron

Reminds me of a chat log where one talks about the results of his/her IQ test and the other one confuses it with the size of his/her ICQ contact list.

[newdie]

I think ICQ is pretty cool, i am on there pretty often, i prefer it even more then MSN. Many of my german friends are on there, but international friends seem to prefer to chat on yahoo or MSN