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Ask HN : What killed ICQ?

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Re: Ask HN : What killed ICQ?

#21

Post by dan_sim »

walesmd wrote: post #8
jm4 wrote: post #3

I think it was a combination of things. If I remember correctly, AIM was an AOL subscription exclusive in the beginning so only the dopes on there were using it. The cool kids were on ICQ and I think there were very few AOL users willing or able to use a separate chat client. Anyway, AOL eventually opened up AIM to everyone and people started using it. It was easier. AIM used screennames. ICQ was cool because you cou…

1170403 - no idea why I remember that, haven't used ICQ since the days of Quake Team Fortress.

If everyone that still remember their number would do a "forget password" and add their account to Pidjin (or whatever), maybe they could find long forgotten friends. The problem is that they will see the last cool name they gave to themselves (something like ---~~~ dARk eviL MaGICian ~~~---)

Re: Ask HN : What killed ICQ?

#22

Post by andrewljohnson »

Jasber wrote: post #18
nx wrote: post #6

The numbers.

I thought the numbers were one of the things that made it fun. Having a low ICQ number showed you were an early adopter, much like having a short URL or twitter name.

Yeah, it made it fun for the early adopters, and less fun for everyone else. That's not much of a strategy, considering how few early adopters there are.

Re: Ask HN : What killed ICQ?

#23

Post by mseebach »

Jasber wrote: post #18
nx wrote: post #6

The numbers.

I thought the numbers were one of the things that made it fun. Having a low ICQ number showed you were an early adopter, much like having a short URL or twitter name.

Yeah, fun for the million or so first users, not so much for the next 2 billion.

I specifically remember hating those numbers (because I always forgot mine) and being spitefully relieved to switch to MSN Messenger when that came out.

Re: Ask HN : What killed ICQ?

#24

Post by dennmart »

I stopped using ICQ when it started to get way too slow for my computer at the time. I remember the first versions were snappy and quick, then they started adding more and more stuff, and it got too bloated for me. ICQ Lite was too stripped down for me, so I looked for alternatives.

Also, all my friends were jumping on the MSN bandwagon (mostly due to MSN being bundled with Windows), so if I wanted to chat with them, I had to jump along with them. Peer pressure can be a bitch sometimes.

Re: Ask HN : What killed ICQ?

#25

Post by seraph321 »

Just figured I'd mention that ICQ never died for me and mine. It was the first IM service I joined (I still use my original 6-digit UIN), and I just never understood why I should change to MSN or any of the others. I long ago started using all-in-one clients so I could talk to people on MSN, AIM, Google, etc but my core group of friends never saw a reason to leave ICQ's network. ICQ actually had a ton of features no one else did for quite a while. The big one for me: it always saved your chat history (and I love to go back and look at my conversations from ten years ago), while MSN and AIM didn't do this at first.

As I type this, I have MirandaIM open and 5 of my close friends going back 8 years are online via ICQ. I will consider it a great shame if it ever really dies.

Re: Ask HN : What killed ICQ?

#27

Post by there »

mseebach wrote: post #23
Jasber wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the numbers were one of the things that made it fun. Having a low ICQ number showed you were an early adopter, much like having a short URL or twitter name.

Yeah, fun for the million or so first users, not so much for the next 2 billion. I specifically remember hating those numbers (because I always forgot mine) and being spitefully relieved to switch to MSN Messenger when that came out.

just like giving out an old compuserve e-mail address.

Re: Ask HN : What killed ICQ?

#30

Post by yan »

vasudeva wrote: post #7

Mine was 299961. I still remember it despite having forgotten the password several lifetimes ago.

I just typed mine up without thinking about it after not knowing what it was for a while. Nice to know again :)
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