ICQ fubar'd

[Kirthag]

It seems since forever we've used ICQ as the main means of communications for UO. Even when the gods put a universal chat system into Sosaria, myself and so many others still used ICQ.

I fire it up today, ready to get into some UO gaming, only to be presented with something that looks more like Skype, and ALL my ICQ list-groups and categorizations are gone.

Am not pleased.

Well, I was introduced to the Discord beta chat program - and I like it - so not gonna use ICQ at all.

For the multitude of ppl who know me via ICQ (55948266), please bounce on over to Discord - free and easy to use, don't need to DL anything (can use thru web browser or DL the small, lighter-than-air interface). For others I chat with via Skype (for gaming purposes), I prolly won't use it anymore except for Family and business. Can get to my Discord server via my webpage - clicky my name in my siggy.

Sorry to see ICQ change so drastically. Wish they would've given the option to keep the old interface, but meh, is progress. So many are buckling under the mobile-market. *sigh*

 

[Flagg]

Guess we like our obsolete software;p When you start UO, you also start ICQ. When you quit UO, you quit ICQ. I bet UO players make like half of it's modern user base.

 

[Victim of Siege]

Can you still get Hot Russian Bride?

 

[Enziet]

heh, I still use mIRC to add to the list of those programs. I'm not a huge fan of the new ICQ layout. But with some tweeking it is sufferable until a "classic" skin comes out.

 

[Riyana]

I use Trillian to manage my ICQ stuff.

My ICQ account was horribly messed up for a while. I had to reset it every few messages I sent. Their "customer service" sent me replies that indicated both 1) complete lack of understanding of the problem I was describing and 2) weren't always even complete thoughts.

And yes, the new client is somehow three steps backward from what they had out in 1999. If ICQ wasn't the only thing UO users seem to still use, I'd have ditched it already.

 

[Kojak]

Miranda IM - Home of the Miranda IM client. Smaller, Faster, Easier

 

[Gilmour]

I use Trillian for icq (and other) needs too

 

[Ender]

I haven't been able to stand the look of it since like, version 5.1 or something many years ago. Haven't used it since

 

[Merlin]

I didn't like the new ICQ interface at first, but got used to it pretty quick. It's like most modern chat clients now and I see no need to leave as long as its where most of the traders of UO will be.

 

[Poo]

my icq did its switch without asking me a month back, hate it, contact list was all messed up and i couldnt find anybody i was looking for.
uninstalled and DLed about a dozen old versions off the net till i found the one i wanted.
unfortunately i now keep getting a full page pop up every couple hours saying my ICQ wants to upgrade itself.
i keep killing it.

not happy.

i hope i can continue to fend off the upgrade until they make the new version more like the old (contact lists, online and offline contacts, groups, ect)

 

[DJAd]

I don't mind the new ICQ at all.

 

[Amber Witch]

I haven't been able to find the web based version of ICQ in a while. Anyone know if it's still around?

 

[Spock's Beard]

Jesus, people still use the ICQ client? That thing has been getting nothing but worse with every update for the last 10 years at least. Go get Trillian or something. Wow.

Also WebICQ if you need it. Fair warning, messages sent from it to people who are offline tend to be missed if they're not also using the web version.

 

[MalagAste]

I switched to Trillian ages ago but now since it is all fubared too because of Microsofts F-up to my PC I pretty much have given that up too for Discord.

 

[Poo]

I don't mind the new ICQ at all.

*adds this to the list of things why DJad is strange*

 

[Petra Fyde]

I contact icq numbers through pidgin. It's working fine so far.

 

[Nexus]

+1 for Pidgin, It's light weight, and does what I need it to do.

 

[DJAd]

*adds this to the list of things why DJad is strange*

I'm not trolling man I'm being serious! I've got used to it now and really like it. It loads in seconds, works fine and finally I can see all the names of people in ICQ group chats!

The only thing I do miss is the contacts status messages you could have before.

Whats so bad about it then, maybe I'm missing something?

 

[Gamer_Goblin]

If you're not using Discord, what's the problem? It's leaps and bounds the best chat system to date.

 

[Gilmour]

thing is: that in order to take up a new chat system you need someone to write with.. to get discord just because is not a good enough reason.. which is the main reason icq is still popular among uo players. It is not that people particularly like icq, but almost everyone else is using it, there have been several attempts to push to another platform in the past. but they will all fail, because its near impossible to move an entire game community to a new primary platform.

 

[Basara]

I haven't used ICQ in almost a decade, after I suddenly lost the ability to access my account, and they told me that there was no record of my email being associated with the account - the only email that had EVER been associated with it.

 

[DJAd]

If you're not using Discord, what's the problem? It's leaps and bounds the best chat system to date.

It is not that people particularly like icq, but almost everyone else is using it, there have been several attempts to push to another platform in the past. but they will all fail, because its near impossible to move an entire game community to a new primary platform.

Yep.

 

[Gamer_Goblin]

Yep.

Sorry, but not progressing because no one else is sounds like the worst excuse. Get with the times. More people are using it, especially in other games. It comes with less of a footprint than anything on my computer as well.

 

[MalagAste]

I've pretty much quit using ICQ since Microsoft borked my pc and I had to reinstall Trillian and ever since it hasn't been the same... I had everyone all catagorized into where they played and what group they were with and all and now I have over 600 people all lumped into one category and I don't know who is who and why I know them. So I'm pretty disgusted with it and just gave it up.

Probably better but I miss being able to contact a few folk... but my guess is they all know where I am.

 

[Gilmour]

Sorry, but not progressing because no one else is sounds like the worst excuse. Get with the times. More people are using it, especially in other games. It comes with less of a footprint than anything on my computer as well.

Yea man, you start driving in the opposite side of the road, and tell us how that works out for ya /sarcasm.. okay joke aside.. but messengers is about reaching people, and if you change service you cannot reach the same people like before unless they also change, some might, but others don't want to because... why should they? and then you are stuck with that, or both anyways.

 

[DJAd]

Sorry, but not progressing because no one else is sounds like the worst excuse. Get with the times. More people are using it, especially in other games.

This is UO remember. Over 50% of the people still use the client made in 1997 so as you probably know they don't like progressing. Discord is great, don't get me wrong but until I start seeing it more widely used in UO I'll keep using icq to contact UO people. I give them discord info and then get asked "don't you have icq".

PS..my discord username is DJAd.

 

[PwnySlaystation]

I've had the same ICQ number since i started UO. ICQ has had some terrible versions released, but the most recent is very good. As DJAd says, it loads fast and has a nice interface.

+ ICQ can be used via web browser too.

 

[Kirthag]

I gotta wonder if you guys have more than 30 ppl on your ICQ list.
I have over 500 - all sorts categorized in groups according to game played most to guild. It just... bah. No warning. I launch ICQ and everyone is all jumbled which hurts my eyes. Cannot rezise, cannot find someone, cannot update status the way I want, cannot send messages right. And no, I will not associate my phone to any chat program with gamers - sorry.

So yeah, switching to Discord is alright. A good portion of the gamers I actively play with are there and that suits me fine. The ppl that were still active on ICQ are mostly old-time UO players who had quit, but we still talked from time to time. Most know how to reach me out of ICQ if they really wanna.

I did get something other than a canned reply from the ICQ ppl, surprisingly. They mentioned the features I mostly lamented about are being planned for a "future release, very soon" and that "much feedback about those features have been received".
I know it wasn't canned as there were some typos - specifically in my name. Hah!

 

[DJAd]

Somebody needs to start a thread so we can list discord #'s

 

[MalagAste]

Somebody needs to start a thread so we can list discord #'s

Sadly invites to Discord Servers only last 24 hours.

 

[Speranza]

+1 for Pidgin, It's light weight, and does what I need it to do.

Pidgin is great, you can even has custom smiley faces.

 

[FrejaSP]

I'm getting use to the new ICQ, I still have my old version 7 to on my PC, but the ICQ group chat did not work well in the old version, when made in the new one, so I ended up using the new one.
I do miss a lot of setting options and yes I miss the options to sort my contacts in categorized in groups.
It take a while to get use to the new interface but I start to like it. It still need some tweaking. I special like, I can see the last days messages without having to search in history.

 

[FrejaSP]

I also found a way to solve the problem with missing categories, I just rename, add a tag after name, like "TDO" for my guild, "Gift" for people I use to trade holidaygifts with, and so on. Then I can easy tast the tag in the search field and get a list of them

 

[Poo]

yes, because that is what we all want with a 'new and improved' version.... to have to work harder to get what we use to have.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

 

[GarthGrey]

I stopped using icq years ago, thought about it again recently until I found out the Russians bought it. Or maybe they always owned it..shrug.

 

[SugarMMM]

I just recently tried using it also after many years so I could do some holiday trades and stuff. The first thing I did was change my password and to do that I had to enter my cell phone number to get a SMS code to verify it was me. Then ugh it hosed my laptop and I had to reinstall the OS.

I wish I didn't enter my cell phone into it and instead used a disposable phone.

It also seems to be very different than I remember. I loved using the icq lite and the icq 2 go back in the day. The new version seems sucky and confusing.

 

[Phantasmagorian]

ICQ messed up their UI a long time ago. So did Skype. I use Trillian.

 

[DJ Diddles]

I hated the new UI at first, but I'm used to it now. The thing I hate most is the inability to access chat history (I've yet to find a way to do so, and the ICQ documentation on this process is extremely outdated).

 

[Nonel]

Miranda IM - Home of the Miranda IM client. Smaller, Faster, Easier

I started using this a while back after I became sick of the real ICQ program becoming more and more bloated. I like it. It has so few features.... but it really is extremely lightweight. It can pull your contacts from the ICQ servers so there is no setup.... just install, log in, and start "ICQ'ing" as always

 

[Magnus]

I created a public DiscordApp server a couple months ago, I don't know if people are still interested in it - but the invite link is still available.