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ICQ will stop working from June 26

icq.com

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Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#281

Post by justsid »

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.

448 484 004. It was weirdly easy to remember and like everyone else here, almost 2 decades later I still remember it. I miss those simpler days, Discord makes it much easier to connect with larger groups of people these days but it just isn't the same magic. Or maybe it's all just rose coloured nostalgia glasses? Either way, it's pretty sad.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#282

Post by walexander »

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.

Yeah, kinda crazy.

I didn't even remember ICQ had numbers until I read the first comment in this thread posting theirs and most of the number immediately popped into my head, 10238* (cant remember last two).

Makes me wonder what other things in my brain are back in archive, just needing the right push to bring to surface.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#284

Post by dewey »

progval wrote: post #205
dewey wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For IRC bouncers there's many, but I'm not aware of anything that has a web interface, phone app, push notifications and all kept in sync. The market is pretty small. Alternatively there's many bridges these days so you can use Matrix with one of the many apps supported.

> I'm not aware of anything that has a web interface, phone app, push notifications and all kept in sync. IRCCloud does. Or if you want an open source stack: Soju as bouncer, Gamja as web interface, and Goguma as Android app. If you have a paid Sourcehut account you get Soju+Gamja hosted for you at https://chat.sr.ht/ . I'm not sure The Lounge and Quassel support push notifications, but they otherwise fit your requir…

> IRCCloud does.

You replied to my post where I said I switched to IRCCloud and the person asked for self hosted alternatives to it :P

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#288

Post by progval »

dewey wrote: post #284
progval wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm not aware of anything that has a web interface, phone app, push notifications and all kept in sync. IRCCloud does. Or if you want an open source stack: Soju as bouncer, Gamja as web interface, and Goguma as Android app. If you have a paid Sourcehut account you get Soju+Gamja hosted for you at https://chat.sr.ht/ . I'm not sure The Lounge and Quassel support push notifications, but they otherwise fit your requir…

> IRCCloud does. You replied to my post where I said I switched to IRCCloud and the person asked for self hosted alternatives to it :P

Haha, yes, my initial message didn't mention it; then I re-read it and thought "huh I forgot to mention IRCCloud" before adding it.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#290

Post by 101008 »

jmbwell wrote: post #251
lxgr wrote: 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!”

I started writing an essay about this topic. I am one of those nostalgics by the old internet. I thought it was the aesthetic (geocities, etc), but after giving it a lot of thought, that wasn't. It was that your life (all of us) was "offline by default".

We lived offline and then we connect to the internet for a few minutes, hours, whatever. But you lived your life offline. We attended concerts, took photos, recorded videos, and then we took our time to share them online (maybe that same night, maybe the next days). You went online to discuss something that happened in real life.

Now it's the reverse. We live "online by default". Everything happens online, all we do is first online or at least at the same time. We attend a concert? We publish pictures and videos almost instantly (some people even do a live stream from the concert!). Something happens in politics? People discuss it as it happens on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Going to the computer to connect to surf the web may sound silly, but that was the difference. Internet was inside a device you had to use. Now internet is happening around you all the time (and if you miss it for a few days, ouch!)

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