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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

#71

Post by ta1243 »

epolanski wrote: post #26
robin_reala wrote: post #3

I probably won’t install the suggested replacement of VK Messenger, I have to say. No more 71966195.

251437659, still remember my number even though I haven't been using ICQ for more than two decades.

Funny how we remember some numbers our entire lives, despite never using them. I can still rattle off my ICQ number, last used nearly 25 years ago, my compuserve ID which I left in 1998, my phone number as a kid, last used about 1994.

I also remember various license plates my family had in the mid 90s, but I struggle to remember my own license plate number now. The only two phone numbers I know are mine and my wife's. I can still remember my high school's phone number though - for some really odd reason as I can't have phoned it much.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#72

Post by fckgw »

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.

When you joined ICQ you received a UIN and that was the only publicly searchable method to connect to other people. You could update your profile with email or username, and manually make that public, but it wasn't searchable by default. If you wanted to connect to a stranger (and the stranger didn't want their email public at the time), you would usually just use their UIN.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#73

Post by swozey »

My number was 163766, funny how I'll never forget it. Also I've only seen a handful of people with lower numbers than me. I remember when there used to be an ebay market for selling your 6 digit numbers. IIRC they started at 100000? And those were all employees.

I was in elementary back then. Prior to ICQ my online friends and I used PowWow chat if you remember that. It had the funniest robotic voice chat.

edit: Wow PowWow was 1998, I thought it was way earlier than that. http://powwow.jazy.net/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowWow_(chat_program) https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5bpjm/that-time-john-mcafee...

edit2: Wtf John McAffee made it

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#74

Post by aleksandrm »

nick238 wrote: post #65
weinzierl wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same for me but the day I will really cry a little will be when mIRC dies. It was my introduction to instant effortless free worldwide communication. Of course I haven't used it for decades but it calms me that it is still very alive.

Isn't mIRC just a client for IRC (a standard), but ICQ is centralized? Or are there some "mIRC"-branded servers out there that run popular IRC channels?

Correct, mIRC is just one of many clients for an IRC protocol.

Re: ICQ will stop working from June 26

#75

Post by jan_Sate »

jsheard wrote: post #51
vundercind wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, it’ll still be around after Discord shuts down.

But would IRC be what a post-Discord exodus actually goes back to? Lacking basic modern amenities like seamless scrollback and push notifications is going to be a hard sell for the generation that grew up with Discord. As a sibling mentioned, Matrix is closer to the mark.

Doesn't matter. IRC serves a niche that there's always a community for that no matter how small it'd become. I'd place a bet that it won't die as long as there's computer and internet. Long live IRC.
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