ICQ, One of the Oldest Instant Messengers, Is Shutting Down

đź‘ŤMaximum Derekđź‘Ť@discuss.tchncs.de to Technology@lemmy.world – 605 points –
pcmag.com

ICQ will stop working on June 26. It's encouraging users to migrate to a messaging app from Russia-based VK, its parent company.

I stopped using ICQ in the very early 00s. I didn't know anything of it still remained.

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I had no idea ICQ was even still operational. Good on them for making it as long as they did.

I was never an ICQ user, but it's always sad seeing such long-standing icons of the internet shut down.

it’s always sad seeing such long-standing icons of the internet shut down.

A reminder of how much fun Web 1.0 was, not the walled-gardened, enshittified, corporatized, ad-riddled rage baiter it is now.

I always said way back in the early 2000s that once corporations figured out the internet, it and society in general would be very screwed. Their early attempts at trying to make things go viral and create engagement were laughably bad. Then they hired a bunch of psychologists and sociologists, bought up everything, and the rest is history.

That's the same with one armed conflict that bothers me much. In the 90s there it was called "blood vs oil" by one charismatic man (who also correctly predicted how it'd go further, though), and, well, then "blood" won, and "oil" looked miserable - evil, dishonorable and defeated, all at the same time. But in 10 years they figured it out completely, in 20 years applied that power in every area they needed (mostly not military), in 25 had a big military victory, and now the situation really sucks from the looks of it.

What?

You don't understand something - you either explain what you don't understand or you remain silent. This "what" implies my comment is something weird which it isn't, you're just slow or apparently lack ability for doing philosophy.

If it's the bad English, "what" is also utterly useless.

lol. Posts shitty nonsense and is then an asshole about it.

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Man, I am so sad now.

I miss the original internet. Back when it was a place for nerds and geeks, before commercial exploitation and SEO and Adpocalypse

The early version of what's now Microsoft's game suite in Windows was one of the coolest things I've seen on the Internet. It was a virtual gaming village where you could go sit at tables and play chess or checkers or cards with people from around the world. It worked 100% fine on 14.4k dialup.

Microsoft bought whatever that was and completely ruined it, just like they ruin everything else they buy.

That just reminded me of something I tried that was similar, I think it was called Visual Chat? It looked like a 2D cartoon, but each person controlled an avatar and could move around and talk to each other, go to other rooms, change expression, gesture, etc.

Microsoft bought whatever that was and completely ruined it, just like they ruin everything else they buy.

It's like the Midas touch: they make it shiny, expensive, and of little use.

You probably mean Comic Chat. It was actually just an IRC client, and I think it's still usable (but frustratingly ineffective) today. But there is a website where you can convert IRC logs to it, I think.

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Good on them for making it as long as they did.

They didn't though, it was sold to a Russian company many years ago.

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