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Say what you will about ICQ, but I can still log in with my number and password from the late 90s and see the names of the people I chatted with in high school

by mikey_p 11y ago

Say what you will about ICQ, but I can still log in with my number and password from the late 90s and see the names of the people I chatted with in high school in my contacts list. This is nothing short of somewhat amazing in the world of software startups and shutterings, etc. FWIW, I've also realized that my Yahoo account from circa 1996 works just as well. my.yahoo.com even remembers what news topics, stocks, weather locations, etc I setup nearly 20 years ago.

romaniv 11y ago
This. I miss ICQ. Well, I still use it occasionally, since it's part of my MirandaIM setup. But I miss it whenever I use Skype for IMs. For starters, I can aggregate ICQ, Jabber and a bunch of other services inside one lightweight open-source client. Also, it had an entirely different social vibe, which is missing from Skype. It was okay to chat with near-strangers in ICQ. It was okay to add people from some random forum to your contact list. It was okay to say "hi" to people when they went online (as opposed to always-online on 10 different devices Skype mentality).
- donatj 11y ago
  YES. I haven't chatted with a stranger in AGES, but a handful of my closest friends online to this day I met by IMing random people on ICQ / AIM.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
meritt 11y ago
The good ole days of ICQ. I felt honored to hold a low six-digit user id which I still remember. On the other hand, I still haven't memorized my wife's phone number.
xenihn 11y ago
I wish I could remember any of the info that I used with ICQ. I can't even remember the e-mail that I used back then. It's been so long.
acquacow 11y ago
Well, that's because it lives on AOL servers now and was merged with Oscar/etc...
iolothebard 11y ago
I was going to say you're late to ICQ if you found it in the late 90s, but then I realized I'm still using my yahoo mail account and have no room talk ;-) When I first used ICQ in 1996 (a buddy introduced it to me) I couldn't figure out who'd be in front of their computer that often. Plus the 90s was still largely on dial-up as well.
unicornporn 11y ago
I still log in too. If I recall things right the chat logs were stored on the server back in the days. Are they still there? Could they be recovered? That would be awesome... EDIT: I guess I was wrong... https://www.icq.com/support/icq_7/messages/is_my_message_history_saved_on_the_icq_servers/ru https://www.icq.com/support/icq_7/messages/is_my_message_his...

by mikey_p 11y ago

romaniv 11y ago

This. I miss ICQ. Well, I still use it occasionally, since it's part of my MirandaIM setup. But I miss it whenever I use Skype for IMs. For starters, I can aggregate ICQ, Jabber and a bunch of other services inside one lightweight open-source client. Also, it had an entirely different social vibe, which is missing from Skype. It was okay to chat with near-strangers in ICQ. It was okay to add people from some random forum to your contact list. It was okay to say "hi" to people when they went online (as opposed to always-online on 10 different devices Skype mentality).

donatj 11y ago
YES. I haven't chatted with a stranger in AGES, but a handful of my closest friends online to this day I met by IMing random people on ICQ / AIM.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

meritt 11y ago

The good ole days of ICQ. I felt honored to hold a low six-digit user id which I still remember. On the other hand, I still haven't memorized my wife's phone number.

xenihn 11y ago

I wish I could remember any of the info that I used with ICQ. I can't even remember the e-mail that I used back then. It's been so long.

acquacow 11y ago

Well, that's because it lives on AOL servers now and was merged with Oscar/etc...

iolothebard 11y ago

I was going to say you're late to ICQ if you found it in the late 90s, but then I realized I'm still using my yahoo mail account and have no room talk ;-) When I first used ICQ in 1996 (a buddy introduced it to me) I couldn't figure out who'd be in front of their computer that often. Plus the 90s was still largely on dial-up as well.

unicornporn 11y ago

I still log in too. If I recall things right the chat logs were stored on the server back in the days. Are they still there? Could they be recovered? That would be awesome... EDIT: I guess I was wrong... https://www.icq.com/support/icq_7/messages/is_my_message_history_saved_on_the_icq_servers/ru https://www.icq.com/support/icq_7/messages/is_my_message_his...