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ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

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Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#31
post #15

It's amazing how they blew it. I remember, back in the day they were dominant messaging platform. And now they are relic of the past, while WhatsApp was purchased for $19 billions. All of this because they missed mobile revolution.

A 4 person team getting $400 million after a few years is "blowing it"?

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#32
post #9

Around 2000 I got annoyed with the ads and crap in ICQ, so I wrote Miranda ICQ, now called Miranda IM ( http://www.miranda-im.org/ ) based on libicq. One of my main inspirations to write the app was I wanted to connect a chatbot to ICQ to harass my friends, but the standard API wouldn't allow sending messages. So I added a plugin API, connected the MegaHAL chatbot and good times ensued. I lost interest in Miranda sho…

Hey! I'm not sure if we ever talked, but I maintained Licq and did the rewrite when the protocol got switched to be like AIM.

I also wrote the initial Miranda ICQ plugin for the new protocol as well, I think that was back in 2002.

Just thought I'd say hey.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#33

I'm quite frankly amazed ICQ is still alive, I thought it was one of those things that had just died out some time ago.

I think ICQ (along with non-technical IRC) took a gut punch when Microsoft bundled MSN Messenger with Windows XP. Almost over night people were switching to (or adopting) MSNM, often reproducing online the cliques already existing in the local communities.

Are you Canadian by any chance? MSN only ever really seemed to take off in some specific regions, one of which was Canada. After ICQ, almost all my American contacts moved to AIM. Which was honestly pretty awful, since MSNM was much nicer.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#34

Everybody is missing the elephant in the room with ICQ, which is why it was popular: In my mid 20's, i'd come back from the pub drunk, login, search for girls online now near me and send them messages. Was usually somebody drunk at the other end, had a few fleeting relationships from that. Nothing since, including Facebook, has had that same immediacy.

You are perhaps not aware of Grindr.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#35
Did anyone else used to "hack" people on ICQ? If I recall correctly, ICQ would expose users IP address if they didn't intentionally hide it. My friend and I would get to chatting with strangers and then exchange photos... Only ours wasn't a photo, it was something that opened a backdoor into their computer that would allow us to take over their PC. We never did anything harmful but might have gotten a few people in trouble for looking at naughty websites or freaked them out by printing to their printer or opening and closing their CD drives sporadically. This would have been around 9th grade 1999-ish...

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#36
post #9

Around 2000 I got annoyed with the ads and crap in ICQ, so I wrote Miranda ICQ, now called Miranda IM ( http://www.miranda-im.org/ ) based on libicq. One of my main inspirations to write the app was I wanted to connect a chatbot to ICQ to harass my friends, but the standard API wouldn't allow sending messages. So I added a plugin API, connected the MegaHAL chatbot and good times ensued. I lost interest in Miranda sho…

Thanks a lot for Miranda, I'm using it since 2006 I think. I don't rely so heavily on it as I used to, probably because of popularity of facebook and mobile chat applications, but I still find it useful :-) I started using a fork http://www.miranda-ng.org some time ago, which seems to be more actively developed.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#37
post #5

I still remember my ICQ number and I haven't used it since 99b. And looking it up reveals I was stupid enough to fill in my birthday correctly for it, which still displays publicly to this day.

Yeah, I have a 500K number. I had a friend who was in the low 30Ks. There was a sense in "pride" when you gave someone your number and they would say "Isn't there meant to be a few more numbers?"

Bah, my ICQ number is 52M. I am impressed my credentials are still in my Pidgin setup, though. And that it still logs in.

I don't think I have ever received or sent any messages, or met anyone else who used it.

On the plus side, my Slashdot number is under 7000, so that validates my life a little, and OH GOD THE RESET PASSWORD LINK EMBEDS YOUR OLD PASSWORD IN THE RESET URL IN THE CLEAR I need to wash my brain out now...

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#38
post #9

Around 2000 I got annoyed with the ads and crap in ICQ, so I wrote Miranda ICQ, now called Miranda IM ( http://www.miranda-im.org/ ) based on libicq. One of my main inspirations to write the app was I wanted to connect a chatbot to ICQ to harass my friends, but the standard API wouldn't allow sending messages. So I added a plugin API, connected the MegaHAL chatbot and good times ensued. I lost interest in Miranda sho…

Hey! I'm not sure if we ever talked, but I maintained Licq and did the rewrite when the protocol got switched to be like AIM. I also wrote the initial Miranda ICQ plugin for the new protocol as well, I think that was back in 2002. Just thought I'd say hey.

Aah Licq ... so much memories in my head right now. Thanks for the great product.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#39
post #27

7285081 - I still remember it 20 years later. I think I was introduced to ICQ when I started playing Ultima Online. Good times, better internets back then.

Same here. Introduced to ICQ while playing UO. Used it to ping each other when there was a rare spawn/scrolls up.

Good times.

Re: ICQ: 20 Years Is No Limit

#40
post #9

Around 2000 I got annoyed with the ads and crap in ICQ, so I wrote Miranda ICQ, now called Miranda IM ( http://www.miranda-im.org/ ) based on libicq. One of my main inspirations to write the app was I wanted to connect a chatbot to ICQ to harass my friends, but the standard API wouldn't allow sending messages. So I added a plugin API, connected the MegaHAL chatbot and good times ensued. I lost interest in Miranda sho…

Thanks a ton

Loved Miranda

Showed me how software should be. Useful, out of my way if not needed

Even preferred it over trillian and adium

Thanks a ton!

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