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

341–350 of 776 posts

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#341

Post by xp84 »

lxgr wrote: post #113
jedberg wrote: post #14

This makes me sad. I mean, I haven't logged in in about 20 years now, and couldn't if I wanted to (don't have the password or access to the email address). But I had a low five digit user number, and built a lot of relationships on ICQ (some of which continue today!). It was my main method of electronic communication in college. I had romantic relationships live and die on ICQ. Another reminder of how things change o…

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,…

Your phone experience reminds me of how, at about age 18, I coveted a Sidekick so much. I knew that it had AIM built-in. Since SMS was too expensive for me to consider a replacement for instant messaging, this seemed to me like the holy grail of teen socializing. To be able to use AIM anytime, anywhere...I could only imagine how cool it would be, especially if all my friends had it too.

I finally got something exactly like that in 2008 (both with mobile AIM clients, and as SMS and iMessage steadily overtook AIM for the purposes we used IM for), but it strikes me as poignant that as an adult, it wasn't really as meaningful to me as it would have been as a teen.

I guess what I'm saying is actually, I kind of get why the gen-z kids became so terminally online. I would have availed myself of the ability to socialize, privately, nonstop day and night!

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#342

Post by tomashertus »

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.

I still remember the number after 20+ years. Crazy.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#344

Post by okasaki »

freedomben wrote: post #313
RankingMember wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd hope Khaled would open source it if he decides to give it up

This is starting to feel even more important now that HexChat is over.[1] Is anyone aware of maintained forks or a revival effort? [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39326630

IRC is very simple. I used to connect with telnet if a client wasn't available.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#346

Post by gruturo »

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.

It's a combination of HN users self-selecting for certain traits, and ICQ typically having been used ~20-25 years ago when our brains were a lot more plastic.

I'm not sure what I ate yesterday for lunch, but I just tried my old ICQ, 6697979, and got in on the first try. The password was right in my head, 12 alphanumeric char which don't mean anything, and I never used it for anything else.

Conversely, today I had to use my domain password at work for a system not yet integrated with our 2-factor, and it was quite an effort to remember it, since I hadn't typed it in a week.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#347

Post by teel »

2558361. Uh-oh. It feels weird how my ICQ UID has stuck to my head although so well. Just tested the online version and it was funny to see the contact names. Too bad the messages were not there. I think I have the db from old old pc somewhere, perhaps it is time to try installing it one more time.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#349

Post by nirv »

#275727

Dozens of megabytes of text, jokes, arguments, dramas, casual and professional socialising, and hundreds of new acquaintances that have shaped my interests in life. Thanks for an interesting 2000s.

Post reply on HN