I remember there was one level of Notpr0n¹ that required looking for an ICQ UIN. I guess new players won't be able to pass it without looking for the answer somewhere else.
ICQ will stop working from June 26
561–570 of 776 posts
Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26
#562I 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 a…
Yahoo games man
Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26
#5631303789 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.
831364 but suffered an account takeover. ICQ shutting down mildly eases this long torment of losing the 6-digit account.
Same. The guy didn’t change any of my profile or recovery info, luckily, so I was able to get it back. And then he sent me a message from another account asking why I had taken his UIN. We ended up chatting for a while. It’s a fond memory.
I actually tried to delete that UIN a few years ago, but the support folks wanted me to provide a few UINs from my contact list to verify ownership. No chance I’m going to remember those.
Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26
#5641303789 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.
Hey neighbor! 1375028
I learned to type on a keyboard by logging into ICQ and sharing that number with people I wanted to connect with. It felt like my internet address.
Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26
#565Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26
#566This 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…
3294067
Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26
#567I 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.
While it had it’s troubles and closed recently, omegle was a modern way for people to connect randomly.
Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26
#568Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was commercial, wasn't it? And only worked on Windows? IRC was the open alternative.
I had a Linux ICQ client in 1997/1998.
With the built-in option to “hijack account”, when sending a password longer than 8 characters would log you in, but official clients capped you at 8 characters.
Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26
#569Talking to my 24 y-o daughter:
- Have you ever heard of ICQ? - No