Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

ICQ will stop working from June 26

icq.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 776 posts

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#151

Post by stickfigure »

layla5alive wrote: post #122
mindcrime wrote: post #54

Well... I don't know that they ever officially released a protocol spec, but libpurple implements ICQ so at least enough of the protocol was reverse engineered or understood somehow to allow for OSS clients. So I suppose somebody could start from there and build a compatible server. Of course it might wind up only being compatible with Pidgin and other libpurple based clients, and the market for this is probably appr…

1. What has happened to us that 16M people is something we just laugh at as an inconsequential number, wtf. 2. SNR on those 16M people is probably well above average in the vector of most interesting people on the planet.

Either the parent edited their post, or you misread it by 6 orders of magnitude.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#153

Post by 5e92cb50239222b »

joshuaissac wrote: post #142
jandrese wrote: post #87

Even though it was mostly just Russians wanting to practice their English last time I used it a couple of decades ago I will miss this service. 9805028 What I really miss is the era when every chat service was on an open protocol so you could have a single app that supported everybody no matter what service they used.

> mostly just Russians wanting to practice their English I guess that explains their recommendation of VK Messenger as a replacement. 360487731

> Originally developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996, the client was bought by AOL in 1998, and then by Mail.Ru Group (now VK) in 2010.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICQ

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#156

Post by agumonkey »

ssfrr wrote: post #45

1303789 Serious question - why do so many people remember our ICQ numbers? I don’t remember what user-facing function it served. Was that actually the identifier we shared with people to connect? I suppose it also came at a time for a lot of us where things seemed to wedge into our brains more easily.

Hmm I only remembered it partially, but I see it was on old phpbb boards. That said, password is probably gone forever.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#157

Post by grishka »

They somehow deleted/deactivated my account several years ago. Not that I used it much in the last 15 years :)

For those who want to experience ICQ once again, there's http://kicq.ru, an unofficial ICQ server that uses some very old version of the protocol so only QIP 2005 and some versions of Jimm work. Adium doesn't work, unfortunately. My number there is 480976.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#159

Post by timcobb »

ssfrr wrote: post #45

1303789 Serious question - why do so many people remember our ICQ numbers? I don’t remember what user-facing function it served. Was that actually the identifier we shared with people to connect? I suppose it also came at a time for a lot of us where things seemed to wedge into our brains more easily.

4007929... great question...!

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#160

Post by vidarh »

phantom784 wrote: post #140
vidarh wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still remember the phone number I had from when I was 10-19, but I can't remember my sons or my mums phone numbers, or indeed any numbers I've had or used since I was 19 other than my current number that I got in my 30's. Basically, the moment I got my first cellphone in '95 or so, I stopped learning phone numbers, other than remembering my current number because I give it out regularly. But also, I think, because…

I made a point to memorize my wife's and my parents' cell numbers, just in case I'm ever in a situation where I don't have a phone and need to reach them (like if I got robbed or something).

It's a sensible thing to do, but I have so many ways to get at online services where I can reach them that it hasn't felt pressing - if I'm in a situation where the only phone I can get hold of isn't a smartphone it sounds more like a 999 or nearest consulate kind of situation... But you're right it'd probably be worth doing anyway.
Post reply on HN