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ICQ will stop working from June 26

icq.com

501–510 of 776 posts

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#501

I probably won’t install the suggested replacement of VK Messenger, I have to say. No more 71966195.

I was 4114934. And I'll express the same sentiment as others: I don't know why the hell I remember that.

A short ICQ number became a matter of pride in certain communities, as some kind of performative early-adopter grandstanding. I imagine that someone, somewhere, out there, is probably still quoting their five/six-digit ICQ number as a badge of honour

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#502

Good memories from a more innocent time. The ICQ client truncated long filenames in the UI, so you could send "image.jpg (50 spaces) .exe" which would open an embedded picture and install a back-door while just seeming like regular picture. I do miss casually texting with people on the computer rather than the phone, and I don't think it's only due to nostalgia or having more leisure time back then: - If someone was…

I only use the phone to send messages when I'm not at home, otherwise I use the computer. One of the best things about Telegram is their good desktop client, they even have online indicators like ICQ. This was true for ICQ as well, in a way. I used some java app on my Sony Ericsson phone back in the day to read and send ICQ messages, but of course back then you had to connect to the internet explicitly, phones weren'…

you can even change the message sound, I changed it to msn

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#503
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have similar sentimental memories of ICQ. One highlight was being able to connect to it from my phone for the first time; first on my first smartphone (Symbian), then from my "non-smart" Sony Ericsson that succeeded it, via some Java Jabber client and a Jabber-to-ICQ bridge! (Unfortunately nobody else that I knew had it on their phones, so I could only reach people in front of their PCs at home.) On the other hand,…

Being reachable only from a PC at home… man. Now that I miss. The whole lifestyle of having a clear distinction between being at the computer and not. Status messages for a time when “away” was a state of being you ever were . Coming back to see whether your crush had messaged you. Simpler times for sure. Before we even had “wi-fi!”

> Being reachable only from a PC at home…

You’d be reachable anywhere in the house, as the landline could start ringing with friends asking to play.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#504
So, I found a grey t-shirt at a thrift store in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. It has a professionally embroidered ICQ logo on it.

No idea where it came from or how it ended up there. I don't think they had a Canadian office. I've had it since 2015, it's fun to wear out and find your fellow xennials in the wild.

Anyone have a theory as to where the shirt came from?

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#505
post #470

I will forever treasure my ICQ memories. The sounds it made. The moving image when it was connecting. Listening in Winamp to one of only a few dozen possible songs that I had carefully downloaded. Being able to randomly connect to people you would filter. Yes, I want to talk to someone more or less my age but in Iceland. Or any other country. But most of all, the feeling of being connected. As a teenager in the autis…

I could not be more with you on this.

ICQ. Geocities (and even some of its clones). I even have fond memories of early yahoo chat such as it was.

The open Internet and the quirky services that made it up was a miraculous, wonderful thing back then. It’s heartbreaking to think of what it’s become since.

I sometimes wonder if there’s a way back to an Internet that resembles the one we had, but all people seem to care about now are celebrities on InstaTikTokTube.

In terms of what you said about ICQ and the sounds (totally agree btw), I used DarkSky for years before it got axed and I miss its rain warning sound horribly.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#506
post #470

I will forever treasure my ICQ memories. The sounds it made. The moving image when it was connecting. Listening in Winamp to one of only a few dozen possible songs that I had carefully downloaded. Being able to randomly connect to people you would filter. Yes, I want to talk to someone more or less my age but in Iceland. Or any other country. But most of all, the feeling of being connected. As a teenager in the autis…

ICQ was the chat tool of the democratic internet, or internet of the people if you prefer the term.

After companies started dominating the internet, it was never be the same. We thought that any company would play by our rules, but they poisoned us with their research, gamification, single way information flow, and walled gardens.

This is why I moved to small web.

I miss the old internet dearly.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#508
post #481
post #470

I will forever treasure my ICQ memories. The sounds it made. The moving image when it was connecting. Listening in Winamp to one of only a few dozen possible songs that I had carefully downloaded. Being able to randomly connect to people you would filter. Yes, I want to talk to someone more or less my age but in Iceland. Or any other country. But most of all, the feeling of being connected. As a teenager in the autis…

First thought: I had assumed ICQ was long dead. It seemed impossible anything from that era could still be running. IRC is of course, through the grace of an ecosystem, but it is a tiny fraction of what it was. Second thought: how do people randomly connect to talk now? Comments sections mostly? I have long ago stopped seeking new connections of any variety.

Is IRC a tiny fraction of what it was? As a percentage of internet traffic sure, but has the population of IRC users actually declined?

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#509
post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

141571088 I find it amusing that I still remember this right off the bat despite not having used it for 15 years, but I don't remember my phone number from the same time period.

Looks like this account has been deleted https://icq.im/141571088/en

Out of curiosity I tried popping my # into the link format and my account was/is still, amazingly, there. I think I started using ICQ in '96 or '97.

The early Internet was an amazing place.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#510
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

251437659, still remember my number even though I haven't been using ICQ for more than two decades.

Funny how we remember some numbers our entire lives, despite never using them. I can still rattle off my ICQ number, last used nearly 25 years ago, my compuserve ID which I left in 1998, my phone number as a kid, last used about 1994. I also remember various license plates my family had in the mid 90s, but I struggle to remember my own license plate number now. The only two phone numbers I know are mine and my wife's…

The most important numbers you can commit to memory are your emergency contact's phone number, your wedding anniversary, and 2ⁿ ∀n ∈ ℤ [1, 24].
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