Pioneering internet messenger ICQ shuts after 28 years
www.channelnewsasia.com
Do you still remember your ICQ number?
  • herrcaptain@lemmy.caEnglish
    56·
    3 months ago

    ICQ was my first foray into meeting girls online, back when that was a really weird thing to do.

    Post a/s/l to pay respects.

        • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
          26·
          3 months ago

          There’s a quote that came from ICQ’s heyday that I had in mind when I wrote that:

          “The Internet: where men are men, women are men, and little girls are FBI agents.”

          • herrcaptain@lemmy.caEnglish
            14·
            3 months ago

            We need to revise that for Lemmy.

            “Lemmy: Where men are men, and men are women, and women are men, and I think we’ve got a few women who were born women, and also there’s a whole bunch of new genders as well, and no genders at all, and that’s all cool with most of us.”

            It’s a mouthful and might not read well on a t-shirt, but we can workshop it.

            • herrcaptain@lemmy.caEnglish
              6·
              3 months ago

              What was this from? I know the reference but can’t place it. I could obviously search for it but, hey, I’m trying to be social here.

              • vulgarcynic@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                3·
                3 months ago

                Man, I don’t know honestly. I believe i first saw / read it on IRC in the 90’s…

                and now I’m turning to dust. haha

                Thanks for being social!!!

      • EngineerGaming@feddit.nlEnglish
        5·
        3 months ago

        As someone who has most of her socialization on IRC now… Eww, mIRC is proprietary and for Windows. Maybe it’s just me having learned about IRC only a couple years ago and thus not having a sentimental attachment, but why use it if you have open-source ones like Hexchat, Irssi or Weechat?

        • kingthrillgore@lemmy.mlEnglish
          4·
          3 months ago

          I used mIRC for years, but as the days have marched on, XChat replaced it, and then irssi, and finally weechat on SSH.

        • Glitterbomb@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          For me, mIRC had a clunky but useful script editor included that 14 year old me spent countless hours creating little chatbots with

  • deranger@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    29·
    3 months ago

    RIP 53215700, the oldest account I’m still aware of that I’ve forgotten the password to. Must have made it in 98 or 99.

    Edit: it was actually 2001 because I was in a Tribes 2 clan and we used ICQ to chat.

    • Y|yukichigai@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      15·
      3 months ago

      86336930 checking in. Pretty sure I remember the password, but it’s not like I can check now.

      You will be missed, ICQ. When no other messaging service worked, you always did.

      • Y|yukichigai@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        I’m not sure how the numbers were doled out, but in 2000 it was a big deal having a sub-9-digit ICQ number.

        • AbidanYre@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          3 months ago

          Maybe I’m off by a bit then. I could have sworn I had one in like the 500k range but it must have been around '97 or '98.

          • TexasDrunk@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            3 months ago

            I got on ICQ in 97 or 98 to keep up with friends from a MUD and mine was 7 digits. I haven’t logged into it in over a decade because when I went back to see if anyone from the old game was around none ever showed up online.

  • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    3 months ago

    It’s with the aim and yahoo messenger in the clouds now. Good bye Trillian profile I had back in the late 90s, you were too beautiful for this world.

    • PlainSimpleGarak@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      3 months ago

      Yes! Trillian was awesome! I used it fairly religiously from the early to mid 00s. Combined my ICQ, Yahoo messenger, MSN messenger, and AIM. I miss that beautiful, convenient piece of software.

  • phoenixz@lemmy.caEnglish
    9·
    3 months ago

    UH OH!

    With ICQ I learned the social skills that I couldn’t on the real world because I had been bullied to near death. I talked to random people all over the world, learned that I could talk to girls without having to feel like shit.

    Used it so much, and with volume up, my upstairs neighbor thought I was watching the teletubbies all the time because of the UH OH!

    Met my first girlfriend this way, she was in Mexico, I was in Europe. Moved to Mexico to marry her (bad idea, she was rather manipulativr and a huge cheater as it turned out, got divorced) and lived in Mexico for samn near 20 years.

    To say that ICQ had a big positive influence in my life is an understatement, it changed my life beyond anything I’ve ever had before.

    Thank you.

  • pyre@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8·
    3 months ago

    6751 6686 here… I’m glad it’s finally getting a burial since it died like 20 years ago.