Be Excellent To Each Other

What do people use these days? I used to use ICQ and AIM back in the day (10-12 years ago), and then moved onto MSN. Do you think that forums and social networking sites like Facebook have replaced them?

I log onto MSN every now and again, but I'd say that 75% of the people I have on there I never speak to anymore. Time for a prune, methinks (and after I've snacked, I'll delete some people from my list).

None. They're for gay emos like myspaz and facebook.

I use Messenger.

Look! My address is down there

I use Messenger; I have 248 people on my list and speak to at least five of them.

Mine too!

I use adium and have MSN, AIM, ICQ, and Yahoo IDs but most of my friends are rarely online, so invariably the only person I speak with is Gaywood.

oh, and gtalk.

I can be found on skype because we use it at work.

For those that know it my username is <firstname>.<lastname>. Everyone else can PM if you want it

I rest my case.

x

I used to use ICQ and MSN but got fed up of people bothering me when I was online. To the extent I used to dread dialing-up*. So now I don't use them at all. The end.

*Yes, unused since dial up days now.

FTFY

I use msn, I talk to Gaywood. I have about 40 people on the list and its rare that more than 10 are online at one time, and even more rare that I'm in a conversation with more than 3 people at once.

In Uni I can remember having so many fucking windows flashing that it was impossible to speak to anyone.

i still use MSN but am annoyed that my hotmail is now pretty much exclusively used to tell me that someone has messaged me on Facebook.

i wonder if anyone uses Friends Reunited anymore. I imagine they've dropped the charge on there now.

I use Digsby from http://www.digsby.com which lets you aggregate all of your IM accounts into a single program. It's great.

Skype is good in theory, but if you make yourself "available for chat" you'll end up talking to some random guy with Aspergers about Return of the Jedi and the beauty of roast potatoes. If that's your idea of fun, fill your boots.

I used to be an ICQ'er (6655424) and thought "MSN WAS FOR GHEYS< LOLZ". Aim too. This was mostly because gamerz used it a lot back then, and then my friends from school used it because a) a few of us did and b) we were all pro gamerz.

Anyway, it suddenly dried up for some reason and everyone moved onto msn. These days I've trimmed my msn list down from the 300 or so it was 5 years ago to around 30 people. I actively talk to around 5 a week or something. I'll usually use Faceboob to fire off a short message these days or SMS. and even then it's to the same people.....




ps: Like Comical, I too used to do the whole "20 conversation windows at once, all flashing away". God, I can't even begin to think how I kept that up. It's maddening. But it's definatley where I picked up the habit of typing a message, htiting enter then immediately hitting escape to get rid of the sodding window.

They did, yeah. Even so the site has visible tumbleweed now.

I have active accounts on MSN, AIM, Gtalk, and Skype. Skype is just for work. The other three I acquired over the years; once you move to multi-protocol clients (Pidgin for me) it seems more natural to have an account on each network than to not have one. Having said that I think I've not sent or received a message over the AIM account in years.

I too used to sit for hours, with half a dozen private IMs and some active IRC channels going. So much so that after an evening on the internet my wrists would hurt. (subs please check for double-entendres).

I think my ICQ number used to 66595074 but I haven't used that in years. Let's see... ah, according to my Usenet sig circa the year 2000 it was 66545073. I was pretty close from memory! Stupid ICQ and your reliance on numbers. I'm glad you were obsoleted.

I also hate people who know my email address sending me Facebook messages. What's up with that? Facebook messages are harder to use on my mobile phone and inflate Zuckerberg's stratospheric ego.

MSN!

I also demand a pole!

Hmm yes, I can remember my ICQ number too 13613802.

I just added people to my msn thingy.

I have an account on pretty much every service, AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo, XFire, Google Talk, etc. But that's because I always use a multi-protocol messenger.

On Linux I prefer to use Emesene (clue's in the name) as it's pretty much the only open source client to support the stuff like showing what I'm listening to and the like.

I only really ever chat to about 5 people though, and I trim my list pretty reguarly.

I really only have people I know or knew in the flesh, or people from this forum.

Who pick you up from poker?

I'm the same actually, I've trimmed mine right down though, not sure why, I never appear online! Only use MSN and Yahoo these days (although I did add Googletalk a couple of weeks ago).

This times a million. Why is it that we don't do this anymore? Is it because we get a more select group of friends as we get older; caring less about quantity and more about quality?

Because you're a twat who has lost all his friends?

I can remember mine too and the password I use for it (it's the only place I've used that particular password) despite having not used in years.

These days I've just got Yahoo installed to chat to GJ. I've got quite a few people on my MSN list but Live Messenger or whatever it's called is too bloated now - I've seen it slow down computers far too much to want to use it myself, but I've not been that fussed about looking for an alternative either.

It's pretty natural to shed friends, mostly because geographically you're unlikely to live near all the people you went to school/college/uni with, and thus won't speak regularly, if at all. Also personalities diverge - I used to have some really close friends who went down different paths in life after uni, and so now I have very little in common with them.

The internet has actually assisted in this, as it makes the odd bit of incidental communication possible, whereas previously you'd never bother to write/call someone you hadn't seen in years.

ICQ: 21276219

Amazing that we all remember ours, and I haven't used mine for, well, a good 6 or 7 years at least. Perhaps because it used to seem important.

I marvel at people who have > 200 facebook friends or whatnot, because of course you don't really have that many friends, you cunt. Even if, for the sake of argument, you did actually speak to them all, the sheer number of them precludes any meaningful relationship on the grounds that its impossible to maintain a decent level of contact with so many people at once. Just stop being vacuous cunts, people.

I can't remember my ICQ number anymore. I'm sure mine was only 7 digits, though...

Heh I had someone add me today who already had 267 friends. I recognised the name from my previous job but couldn't place her at all. Looking at the profile thumbnail, it was just a couple of pet dogs so I had to accept to figure out who she was.. turns out she's just someone engaged to someone I worked with.

I used to use a couple of multi-protocol clients (Gaim and Trillian, I think), but pretty much everyone I know uses msn, and microsoft seem to have an annoying habit of breaking msn with other programmes, so I just use windows live messenger or whatever they call it nowadays.

I have at least 2 ICQ numbers as I forgot one (although I later found it again), can't remember when I last used it though.

This, dude, what's the fucking point of this? WHY, oh WHY add the person when you don't know them, and have an extremely tenuous connection to start with? It's not like they want to speak to you, or even look at your info, it's just some pathetic, meaningless number game. I'd rather have 20 ace friends than 250 people I don't even fucking know. Arrragh!

And yet you still don't want me.

x LOADS!

It's one of the reasons I REFUSE to have a facebook account.

I wouldn't refuse to have one on those grounds. I'm happy to have an account, however I have a mere 31 'friends' listed, some of these are family too. The person I speak to the least on this list is myoptika. In fact, I don't know why he's on my list. I must delete him. Damn you, myoptika, for being on my list and not speaking to me.

FYI: When you click 'Fuck off' to a friend request on facebook, it now gives you a handy option to block that person. I like this, as it means the same people won't keep trying to add you, so once you get past the initial slew of shit, you'll have a usable, handy application for keeping in contact with people you actually want to speak to.

I'm sure my ICQ was 53005443 but again, haven't used it for years. Used to use Trillian in the past to keep up with various different people who only had Yahoo, or only had AIM, but now most people have MSN, so if I ever fire it up I'll use that.

[email protected] if anyone wants to add me, but the e-mail address is never checked.

On Windows, Trillian.

On OS X, AdiumX.

My ICQ is 1229714, which isn't bad, I suppose.

I use it mostly for talking with a friend in Canandada (who still insists on sending me messages when she knows I'm on my 360 and not my laptop) and my friend James who I really should message again soon as it's been AGES.

Apart from them, almost everyone else on my list is either from years ago or is constantly on it but never says anything (Gaywood)

I use msn messenger loads. Facebook? Fuckbook, more like.

I used icq back in the Cretacious, before it got destroyed by spambots and child pornographers. Then it turned out it had become quite big in Eastern Europe (where it's still 1997), and I had to use it for a few months to talk to my ex. It was still a bit rubbish.

I can remember my ICQ number, despite not having used it since 2000. (59409311, fact fans)

Also use MSN and Googletalk, but haven't logged on in ages, as noone tended to speak to me.

That's because I speak to you all the time on here, you cunt.

If it makes you feel better I'll send you a zombie bite request, or whatever the cool kids are doing today.

I wish it was 1997 again. Batman movies at least knew they sucked, the Designer's Republic was everywhere, and everyone couldn't wait for Resident Evil... TWOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooo.

Wouldn't surprise me if Facebook has become the little black book to some. For those with a million friends on there, I wonder what the page looks like when you log in - all those 'look at me' status updates etc. It'd be fun if you could change other people's statuses to stir things up a bit..

'... is glad it's only herpes!'
'... has found out she's pregnant.. oops!'
'... is about to top himself.. bye'
'... could've sworn that was a woman.. never mind'
etc

well you can comment on other peoples status now.

Malc

Fuckbook is a collossal waste of time... after a flurry of activity for the first week or two while you track down all your friends... there's then nothing to do except install stupid smug flash games and little apps that display dopey jokes.

I've had a steady stream of friends requests since I signed up about 18 months ago. I don't always accept them, especially if they're the boss who completely shafted you for a promotion, or the bloke who bullied you at school.

What possesses these people to add you in the first place? It's ludicrous.