ICQ vs MSN vs AIM etc.

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i'm only using MSN, someone on the 'buddy list' thread insinuated it was rubbish - what's it not got that the others have? do you use them all or do you have a preference? if so why so?

i'm thinking of re-installing Trillian which allows you to add all your contact from all the different instant message clients into one app so you can talk to everyone...

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:17 (twenty-three years ago)

MSN roolz, if only for the feature of telling you if the person you're talking to is typing something. Trillian requires that you use the same username and password for all of them, doesn't it? If it doesn't then I'd maybe consider trying it again.

― Bryan (Bryan), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, iChat does that too, if the other person has iChat; or AIM does it if you have -- oh, what's the term? -- a "direct image connection" gong on.

― Chris P (Chris P), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I always preferred AIM because, doh, it's really easy to use.

Although I hardly ever speak to anyone on it, so it's odd I have a preference at all...

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:24 (twenty-three years ago)

There are other chat services than AIM? Are you sure?

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:25 (twenty-three years ago)

trillian (www.trillian.cc) does them all

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:26 (twenty-three years ago)

What about Yahoo messenger? 7mb download? I'm running on a piece of string, so I'll pass, thanks.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:41 (twenty-three years ago)

just downloaded aim: 10 mins on my computer. signing up for the screen name was a bitch but i just did that.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 21:57 (twenty-three years ago)

AIM's size is about as much as I can bear on a slow connection (=bad phone line, why bother fixing it, we're moving). Besides, Yahoo's monster probably has all kinds of insidious spywarez built into it...

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Although, AIM does keep pestering you (once a week) when a new version's out (and one has just appeared, I think).

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:01 (twenty-three years ago)

AIM IS AOL Instant Messenger yes? i get confused, surely AOL are the worst for spyware and crap? i hate them more than Microsoft...

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:04 (twenty-three years ago)

You don't need AOL to use it. I don't know what difference this makes, security-wise. The size of the Yahoo thing seems quite unnecessary, though.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:07 (twenty-three years ago)

You use all your different names/passwords on trillian - I've got it here and it seems to be ok

― luna (luna.c), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:09 (twenty-three years ago)

I tried that once and couldn't get my head round it. But I'm stupid.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:10 (twenty-three years ago)

i like AIM, cos i wanna go where everybody knows my name.

― di smith (lucylurex), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:43 (twenty-three years ago)

aim is good, I don't like msn, mainly coz it always opens itself automatically when I open my email, and that sorta thing annoys me.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:44 (twenty-three years ago)

iChat! WOO! How can you beat a chat program that uses DIALOGUE BUBBLES?

― Mandee, Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Now that i've gotten used to Trillian, i won't go back to straight-up ICQ (though it's easier to search for users on ICQ rather than in Trillian (so far as i've found, anyways.) It's great, and it covers most of the major chat clients (though you need to register each one individually, but that's a pretty minor hassle.)

― Matt Maxwell (Matt M.), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:48 (twenty-three years ago)

I wonder if my old ICQ account is still working? Nah, it's been three years or so. Wouldn't it be funny if it was and there was 15,000 unsolicited msgs piling up somewhere...

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Mandee, the first thing I did was turn off the dialogue bubbles. But they are cute.

Am I daft or does iChat not have a way to "group" your buddies like AIM does? I think that's the only feature I miss...

― Chris P (Chris P), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:52 (twenty-three years ago)

aim is good, I don't like msn, mainly coz it always opens itself automatically when I open my email, and that sorta thing annoys me.

you can turn that off pretty easily jel

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 25 March 2003 22:58 (twenty-three years ago)

If you turn off the bubbles in iChat, it then colors in the text area of each chatter with a different color, which to me looks even worse. I'd like to see the chatter's names in different colors, but the actual text be against plain white.

― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 01:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Miranda was my life when ICQ98 became too big of a beast for me to deal with.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 01:17 (twenty-three years ago)

http://gaim.sf.net/

BEST AIM CLIENT EVER

oh and aim notifies you about typing

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 02:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh no I much prefer all the backgrounds being in different colors. Totally easier to read.

― Chris P (Chris P), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 04:44 (twenty-three years ago)

I dare anyone to chat with me on AIM right now, though it won't be for long. Username twp62yo.

― Bryan (Bryan), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 05:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Wow! I managed to scare everyone off of ILE!

― Bryan (Bryan), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 05:43 (twenty-three years ago)

Thanks, Chris.

― Bryan (Bryan), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 05:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I IM the IMless. Or something. Anytime, Bryan.

― Chris P (Chris P), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 05:59 (twenty-three years ago)

I would download AIM, but I think I'm wasting quite enough work time with ILX as it is...

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 09:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Damn, I missed out on that dare. I would've too.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 13:22 (twenty-three years ago)

It would've been at about 5 am your time, Christine, so the competition wasn't fair, not that talking to me is such a great treat. I just wanted to see if the message about the other person typing would come up (it did), and then poor Chris had to field questions from me about THE WEATHER of all the boring things to talk about. If I'm speaking to someone from far away and I'm too lazy to find out for myself what it's like where they are, it's usually the first thing I ask.

― Bryan (Bryan), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 14:39 (twenty-three years ago)

The weather here is getting far too warm-hot for my liking. I'm profoundly allergic to warmth and sunlight.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

is gaim worth switching to, jon? i use everybuddy.

i'm a unix/mac guy so i can't use trillian. i like everybuddy cause it lets me use multiple protocols, though honestly i pretty much only talk to people from AIM now.

does ANYONE still use ICQ?

― j fail (cenotaph), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

And BTW... I think I might change my e-mail address on here... at least one mail sent to this wretched account last night still didn't get here! The Freeserve one is more reliable.

Thinking aloud.

― ChristineSH (chrissie1068), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 15:07 (twenty-three years ago)

j fail: yes, definately.

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 15:45 (twenty-three years ago)

does ANYONE still use ICQ?

Up til late last year, I did....heavily. (The local cybercafe had it.) Then, I couldn't be bothered. AIM isn't necessarily better than MSN---it all comes down to preference. AIM was the IM system I had 3 years ago, when I actually used AOL. Once I discovered I could keep my Buddy List without the $23.95 waste, I did.

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 18:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I just got broadband in my new flat and installed trillian but nothing will connect because I have the internet through a network here and there's some proxy problem.

: ((

― RJG (RJG), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 20:19 (twenty-three years ago)

jon.

i just installed gaim, it's decent. it's nice that i can actually do filesharing and send images. it doesn't log chats, which i really liked about everybuddy. also, everybuddy let me rename people to their real names which i did for weird aesthetic reasons. also for some reason mine only seems to support AIM, and not yahoo or msn... but i installed the debian package instead of building it from scratch, so maybe something is broken.

― j fail (cenotaph), Wednesday, 26 March 2003 20:55 (twenty-three years ago)

j fail - really? what debian version are you using.. i have chat logging, aliases and msn/yahoo plugins going

debian unstable

actually not sure about plugins in debian pkg... i know you can though

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Thursday, 27 March 2003 01:45 (twenty-three years ago)

Um, I wouldn't mind talking with someone now, if anyone's up and bored (or wants to be).

― Bryan (Bryan), Sunday, 30 March 2003 04:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Really? No one?

― Bryan (Bryan), Sunday, 30 March 2003 05:40 (twenty-three years ago)

j fail!

hey!

― maura (maura), Monday, 31 March 2003 04:25 (twenty-three years ago)

two weeks pass...

bah! i can't log on anymore. sorry to the ppl i was chatting to.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 15 April 2003 19:59 (twenty-three years ago)

There's a huge monster bastard chat on RIGHT NOW. Join us.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 April 2003 01:20 (twenty-three years ago)

ten months pass...

Surely the one you choose comes down to what all your mates use, right? Thus, I use MSN. That, and the "X is typing a message" thing is great.

― Nick H (Nick H), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 23:58 (twenty-two years ago)

i have msn yahoo and aol i think aol is shit it does my head in i like msn best but if im chattin and want 2 send music or pics i use yahoo cos its faster

― Emma williams (Emma williams), Thursday, 19 February 2004 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)

visit my ex-girlfriend's blog

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 19 February 2004 00:05 (twenty-two years ago)

MSN seems to be the messenger service of choice for anyone who's attended a British school in the past five years.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 19 February 2004 00:05 (twenty-two years ago)

hahah that's where that got to.

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 19 February 2004 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

MSN's 'is typing a message' feature can be abused wonderfully by making it look as if you're typing a lengthy, thoughtful missive and then having it mysteriously vanish, or revealed to be the word 'horse' 48 times.

― ferg (Ferg), Thursday, 19 February 2004 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

So, what's your current MSN display picture then?

Mine is a young Stevie Wonder holding something that appears to be a dagger, but probably isn't.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 19 February 2004 00:11 (twenty-two years ago)

AIM does the 'is typing' thing too but only with some people, does anyone know what's up with that?

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 19 February 2004 02:03 (twenty-two years ago)

AIM does the 'is typing' thing too but only with some people, does anyone know what's up with that?
-- teeny (teen...) (webmail), February 19th, 2004 9:03 PM. (teeny) (later) (link)

People can disable that notification. Doesn't work with older versions.

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Thursday, 19 February 2004 02:07 (twenty-two years ago)

it's a preference you have to set.

― Kingfish Beatbox (Kingfish), Thursday, 19 February 2004 02:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Believe it or not, Microsoft has a patent on that 'is typing' feature. What the fuck.

― Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 19 February 2004 02:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Argh! I'm not supposed to be here! (head explodes)

― Andrew (enneff), Thursday, 19 February 2004 02:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, don't die now. That would suck.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 19 February 2004 02:27 (twenty-two years ago)

My MSN pic is George Costanza giving a thumbs up. My ignorant friends have no idea who he is.

― Nick H (Nick H), Thursday, 19 February 2004 16:55 (twenty-two years ago)

My sister is adorably twee and has a ladybug as her buddy icon. :-) The "is typing" thing works between us, but my friends at work who use Trillian with AIM neither send nor receiving "is typing" messages. Anyway, it does seem that it's mostly up to what friends use; I have a Yahoo and a MSN account that I haven't touched in months because the people I usually want to talk to are on AIM.

― lyra (lyra), Friday, 20 February 2004 06:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, how d'you get a MSN pic then...can't find it in the preferences?

― winterland, Friday, 20 February 2004 11:51 (twenty-two years ago)

You might have to download the latest version. You get new emoticons too.

― Nick H (Nick H), Friday, 20 February 2004 12:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Got 3.5 for the Mac...only downloaded a couple of weeks ago , so I thought it was the most up-to-date

― winterland, Friday, 20 February 2004 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

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