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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

#681

Post by newsclues »

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…

As someone with a similarly low icq number but I lost the authentication details, I’m happy it’s gone and I don’t need to worry that I can’t remember my password anymore

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#682

Post by renegade-otter »

bayindirh wrote: post #506
dkga wrote: 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.

As others have pointed out, our fond memories of the Old Internet being "democratic" may be a little off.

But. I think it's fair to say it felt more free, it had a high barrier of technical entry, which filtered out most of the public, and there was no craven race to monetize and enshitify absolutely every single of our interactions.

Mostly because corporations were in the process of figuring out how to do all that with this new Internet thing.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#683

Post by larodi »

kinow wrote: post #452
larodi wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4125222 I still remember it but not the pass

You should keep trying. Looks like your account was not deleted, but check if the name/description matches what you had the last you remember - https://icq.im/4125222/en

Yeah definitely, it was EXo before but I hid it. Because hiding one’s identity was a thing back in the day. Maybe I should try to login, but the logs were local, were they?

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#684

Post by FMecha »

trustno2 wrote: post #680
RajT88 wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

ICQ was bought by... uhh Russians? Israelis? Something like that... and was changed several times what it actually is; when I tried it recently, it was just a WhatsApp clone; they even removed all the old ICQ number accounts.

Russians, given the VK app plug in the announcement.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#686

Post by nullsmack »

trustno2 wrote: post #680
RajT88 wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

ICQ was bought by... uhh Russians? Israelis? Something like that... and was changed several times what it actually is; when I tried it recently, it was just a WhatsApp clone; they even removed all the old ICQ number accounts.

I'm actually kinda bummed to hear that. I logged in sometime in the past few years and was pleasantly surprised to see my number from the 90s still worked. Moot point now if the whole thing is being shut down anyways, I guess.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#687

Post by realfeel78 »

scooke wrote: post #649
kazinator wrote: post #599

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ICQ was the chat tool of the democratic internet It was proprietary client software released in 1996 and bought by AOL two years later. It relies on a service operated by a single party, which is now sunsetting it. According to the Wikipedia article, when ICQ was under AOL's stewardship, "AOL pursued an aggressive policy regarding alternative ("unauthorized") ICQ clients." The article details all the tactics that A…

You missed the point. The point wasn't the nature of the tool itself. Anyone could join, and one could chat with anyone. It was used "by the people" and not curated by corps.

Pretty sure every large-scale chat app that exists is used "by the people"? What are you actually trying to say?

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#688

Post by realfeel78 »

bayindirh wrote: post #656
Dalewyn wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>ICQ was the chat tool of the democratic internet, or internet of the people if you prefer the term. That's IRC.

> That's IRC. IRC is the other one , not the only one. However, Discord is eating its lunch in these days, sadly.

"The other one"?

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#690

Post by realfeel78 »

RulerOf wrote: post #591
asddubs wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

discord servers

"servers" I don't think anybody actually cares, but I resent discord for this terminology.

Now you know how my dad feels about the terms "engineer" and "software architect" being used for software developers.
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