MSN Messenger - Did you use it?

Ariadne · 22-03-2019 12:14pm #1

Ah the days of MSN messenger, a simpler time. So, did you use it, do you have fond memories of your chats? Does it still exist actually? I was just thinking to myself that over the years we've lost our anonymity on the internet. You used to exchange email addresses and chat, now you exchange mobile numbers and chat. A profile picture of yourself is normal whereas it wasn't necessarily on MSN.

I was thinking that everything seems to be moving towards the social media side of things, I used to belong to a CF forum years ago but it seems that everyone is in facebook groups now, that doesn't appeal to me as I prefer to post with some anonymity and so I don't know anyone with CF anymore.

When I first joined weight watchers it was a forum style like here but the last time I signed up it was like weight watchers facebook and you couldn't just ask a question and get an answer, and people were posting up wedding photos and all sorts of crap I didn't want to have to wade through, it was like having a facebook feed.

I don't know, am I just getting old and longing for a simpler time? :P

McMurphy · 22-03-2019 1:16pm

ASL?

Cyber?

*Drops pants*

petes · 22-03-2019 1:17pm

irc was where it was at

Bigbagofcans · 22-03-2019 1:18pm

I used to use it all the time. Chatted to a few friends and also randos I met in chat rooms, had many an interesting conversation with them.

Ah chat rooms, they were so popular back in the day. The whole instant chat was an exciting thing too.

Mike Oxlong · 22-03-2019 1:19pm

Bebo was where it was at !!

Ariadne · 22-03-2019 1:19pm

Johnny Dogs wrote: »

ASL?

Cyber?

*Drops pants*

Ah sweet memories, you see that's what I'm talking about. The good old days :pac:

I wonder do the young folk even know what cybering is

super_furry · 22-03-2019 1:20pm

Was more an IRC man myself. mIRC was where all the cool kids were.

Ariadne · 22-03-2019 1:20pm

Mike Oxlong wrote: »

Bebo was where it was at !!

Giv me ur Bebo luv bbz xx

Grayson · 22-03-2019 1:20pm

petes wrote: »

irc was where it was at

For nerds.

ICQ was where the cool people (And russian scammers) went.

super_furry · 22-03-2019 1:20pm

Succubus_ wrote: »

I wonder do the young folk even know what cybering is

Lets show them.

**I Put on My Robe and Wizard Hat**

GBX · 22-03-2019 1:23pm

Used it a lot. Nudging away to my hearts content!

marcbrophy · 22-03-2019 1:23pm

I still use it, 5 days a week, in it's current guise as Lync or Skype for Business

Tacitus Kilgore · 22-03-2019 1:23pm

Succubus_ wrote: »

I wonder do the young folk even know what cybering is

2 middle aged men tearin' the handle off themselves while convinced the other or both is a 14 year old boy / girl?

Ariadne · 22-03-2019 1:24pm

Bigbagofcans wrote: »

I used to use it all the time. Chatted to a few friends and also randos I met in chat rooms, had many an interesting conversation with them.

Ah chat rooms, they were so popular back in the day. The whole instant chat was an exciting thing too.

I met my missus in a chat room ten years ago, we were being grammar Nazis. It was meant to be :pac:

BeerFarts · 22-03-2019 1:26pm

Met my wife on Oceanfree chat back in the day. MSN messenger was the follow up chat we used every day. Fond memories of them.

antodeco · 22-03-2019 1:26pm

I worked for AOL at the time and had MSN, AIM and ICQ as my main source of entertainment!

Ariadne · 22-03-2019 1:29pm

Imagine if boards had a chat room, I'd love it! I guess a moderator's nightmare but I think it would be good craic.

Clareman · 22-03-2019 1:30pm

Bring back IRC

BeerFarts · 22-03-2019 1:31pm

Succubus_ wrote: »

Imagine if boards had a chat room, I'd love it! I guess a moderator's nightmare but I think it would be good craic.

I always thought it was a step backwards when chat rooms started to disappear. They were great in finding randomers to talk to and perverts to piss off.

Ariadne · 22-03-2019 1:34pm

BeerFarts wrote: »

I always thought it was a step backwards when chat rooms started to disappear. They were great in finding randomers to talk to and perverts to piss off.

Me too, nothing like having conversations with randomers. There always were the weirdos but sure you just ignored them.

Bigbagofcans · 22-03-2019 1:40pm

Remember some people used to constantly log in and out so that they'd be popping up on people's screens. Trying to get their attention or something?

'Appear offline' was a good one to get out of chatting to people you were avoiding.

razorblunt · 22-03-2019 1:40pm

oceanfree.net FTW!

Ariadne · 22-03-2019 1:42pm

Bigbagofcans wrote: »

Remember some people used to constantly log in and out so that they'd be popping up on people's screens. Trying to get their attention or something?

'Appear offline' was a good one to get out of chatting to people you were avoiding.

I'd be in a sulk if I logged into MSN and whoever I fancied at the time didn't say hello to me first :pac:

Relikk · 22-03-2019 1:57pm

Oceanfree was a huge part of my early twenties. Really missed it when it ceased to be. MSN was the next big thing during and after Oceanfree. Kangochat was a rubbish alternative that paled in comparison, and had an idiotic admin with en ego the size of Jupiter.

OU812 · 22-03-2019 2:02pm

Have no idea why they retired it.

Was on AOL first as had more friends on that, that went by the wayside also. The thrill of being online & getting a bing because someone logged on & it was now morning where they were in the US.

Moved later to another app called Trillian which could talk to both MSN & AOL (& some others) without needing to have all the apps open.

Ariadne · 22-03-2019 2:05pm

I know apps like kik exist where you don't exchange numbers but usernames instead but as far as I know you have to add someone to use it so you have to know the person already. Also, apps like kik seem to have a reputation as being used by married people to have affairs.

_Kaiser_ · 22-03-2019 2:19pm

MSN Messenger was great but then they tried to make it into a social media app and replaced it entirely in the end with Skype (which is still going - not the same as Skype for Business/Lync/Teams either)

There was a plugin you could get (Plus!) which stripped back a lot of the shyte and removed ads, but the decline was already underway

These days I prefer Viber to Whatsapp and don't do Facebook - but yea, good times!

DelBoy Trotter · 22-03-2019 3:38pm

I started out with Yahoo chat rooms which led me to download Yahoo Messenger (I might my first long term girlfriend in a Yahoo Dublin Chat room! We chatted for months before finally meeting up, and then we ended together for four year!). Yahoo Messenger began to die off as people moved to MSN Messenger. I used MSN Messenger for years, but when it all moved towards Skype the whole IM thing was dying off

Wibbs · 22-03-2019 3:38pm

Yep I used it a lot way back when, particularly with one ex of mine. We were on it chatting with each other for hours in a day.

Grayson · 22-03-2019 4:04pm

BeerFarts wrote: »

Met my wife on Oceanfree chat back in the day. MSN messenger was the follow up chat we used every day. Fond memories of them.

Did you have the same username back then?

The J Stands for Jay · 22-03-2019 4:05pm

Msn was the only reason I had a hotmail address. Used in the uni library to gather people from the 2 libraries or the various computer rooms to go to the bar. It was pretty handy for my year in the States too.

What is\was CF?

Ariadne · 22-03-2019 4:27pm

McGaggs wrote: »

Msn was the only reason I had a hotmail address. Used in the uni library to gather people from the 2 libraries or the various computer rooms to go to the bar. It was pretty handy for my year in the States too.

What is\was CF?

I won't even tell ye what my first hotmail email address was, so mortifying, I was 12 and clearly in need of attention, the shame.

Oh I have Cystic Fibrosis and people with CF aren't supposed to meet in person due to infection issues so there's an online community.

LimeFruitGum · 22-03-2019 4:35pm

MSN Messenger was always a work tool for me, probably because my then employer was too cheap to buy suitable licenses for professional IM tools.

_Kaiser_ · 22-03-2019 4:41pm

LimeFruitGum wrote: »

MSN Messenger was always a work tool for me, probably because my then employer was too cheap to buy suitable licenses for professional IM tools.

To be fair, from what I remember back then, MSN Messenger was probably the best of them. Lotus Sametime (I think it was) wasn't up to much - we used that in work.

The J Stands for Jay · 22-03-2019 4:43pm

Succubus_ wrote: »

I won't even tell ye what my first hotmail email address was, so mortifying, I was 12 and clearly in need of attention, the shame.

Oh I have Cystic Fibrosis and people with CF aren't supposed to meet in person due to infection issues so there's an online community.

I was assuming CF was something like aim, AOL, IRC, IRQ, wbs, or something else that I'd forgotten about.

My Hotmail address was just last name first name. My rocketmail address (which I still use) was where I had my daft name.

_Kaiser_ · 22-03-2019 4:45pm

McGaggs wrote: »

I was assuming CF was something like aim, AOL, IRC, IRQ, wbs, or something else that I'd forgotten about.

My Hotmail address was just last name first name. My rocketmail address (which I still use) was where I had my daft name.

I have multiple emails long term

- My firstname.lastname for all "proper" stuff
- A 2nd I've pretty much retired now
- A 3rd for forums etc

Also had the same mobile number since 1998!

Muir · 22-03-2019 5:13pm

There are still places that can be more anonymous. I run a mental health forum and chatroom because people sometimes don't want it linked with their facebook account. I'm pretty certain there are Discord servers for CF.

If you don't know what Discord is, it's a chat platform that was designed for gamers but people use it for all sorts, you can set up your own server and you can have it invite only to keep it more secure, or publicly post the link online. Or you can find existing servers to join. So it's almost like a whatsapp group but bigger, and with usernames rather than phone numbers.

Ariadne · 22-03-2019 5:15pm

Muir wrote: »

There are still places that can be more anonymous. I run a mental health forum and chatroom because people sometimes don't want it linked with their facebook account. I'm pretty certain there are Discord servers for CF.

If you don't know what Discord is, it's a chat platform that was designed for gamers but people use it for all sorts, you can set up your own server and you can have it invite only to keep it more secure, or publicly post the link online. Or you can find existing servers to join. So it's almost like a whatsapp group but bigger, and with usernames rather than phone numbers.

Ooh thank you! *goes off to google discord servers*

o1s1n · 22-03-2019 5:19pm

I used ICQ and thought everyone who used MSN were blow ins :pac:

I do find it rather interesting as mentioned by some other folks above how IM died out. It really was a staple of the internet experience back in the day.

Anyone remember ICQ Live type group chat? Was great fun. You'd have a chat window to type in each and your characters would appear in real time as you typed.

Ariadne · 22-03-2019 5:28pm

So, I think I set up a discord server. It's called boardsiesforlife because I'm sad like that. I'll just hang around in there and see if any of ye join me.

#forever alone

https://discord.gg/DVpAjgW

The J Stands for Jay · 22-03-2019 5:35pm

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

I have multiple emails long term

- My firstname.lastname for all "proper" stuff
- A 2nd I've pretty much retired now
- A 3rd for forums etc

Also had the same mobile number since 1998!

When rocketmail was bought by Yahoo, they let me have a second email address so I chose firstname.lastname@yahoo.com that I use for proper stuff. Since android came along, I got a Gmail address and all my rocketmail and yahoo emails come through the Gmail app.

I've only had the same mobile number since 2000. My brother gave me his old mobile, so I assume the number's been in the family since 1998.

23-03-2019 3:14am

*NUDGE*

and your whole computer would shake

Ursus Horribilis · 23-03-2019 3:42am

Some of these sounds bring back memories :pac:

23-03-2019 7:59am

Succubus_ wrote: »

I wonder do the young folk even know what cybering is

Think they call it "sexting" now or just "fun". If someone asks you in a chat room if you want to have "fun" be aware they actually mean "Do you want to be naked in front of a camera for me".

I wandered into a few chat rooms of late and basically they all seem to be a stop-ground to move on to something else. So rather than make any conversation at all - people just ask you if you have KIK, SnapChat or Gruveo mainly. The last of which I have no idea what it is but had it mentioned to me 20 times in a chat room. I get the feeling it is a video chat software.

It is a shame as I always liked having a chat room open while I work - as a lot of my work involves waiting for things to finish running on my computer. So was always nice to have the distractions.

But now there is no real chat room left that I can find. And the popular ones are either the depths of sexual depravity now (kisschat comes to mind).

Or there is no chat room in it any more rather only 1-1 conversation possibilities (ChatIW comes to mind there). Which I guess does away with the need for chat room moderators but it does away with actual chat too! My GF also uses chat rooms on occasion and ChatIW is pretty much the only one that she finds fellow Irish people on in any number.

So not sure what chat rooms are still out there worth using? Someone said there are some on Discord. But I have not checked that myself.

super_furry wrote: »

Was more an IRC man myself. mIRC was where all the cool kids were.

Used that so much in my teens. From the IOL and Indigo servers to - eventually - the Phishy one. The last of those died a very slow death kept alive by only 4 or 5 users who could not let it go. One of which was an awful girl/woman - one of the worst people I ever knew - who made it her life mission to convince each chatter that each other chatter were awful people who did or said awful things they never actually did.

But mostly my memories from those days was positive and some great people. After that it was Kangochat and Oceanfree for awhile.

I assume IRC still is going? Undernet and Dalnet did not look like they would ever die. And I think a few chat rooms on the Web with graphical interfaces are actually just IRC in the background and you could connect to them just as well with IRC clients. I think UKChatterBox or whatever it is now called is an example of this. But now that site and its spin off sites like UKChatters all have aobut 5 people on them when it used to be 500.

TheValeyard · 23-03-2019 9:04am

Some of the games were fun when chatting with someone. Like X and O's.

limnam · 23-03-2019 9:14am

super_furry wrote: »

Was more an IRC man myself. mIRC was where all the cool kids were.

Nope, we were rocking BitchX. The aul wans were on mIRC.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp · 23-03-2019 9:51am

Still is too

petes wrote: »

irc was where it was at

Ariadne · 09-06-2019 3:32pm

just a reminder....

https://discord.gg/atARkb

Alecto · 04-12-2019 12:19am

and another reminder! Come and join me, I won't bite, or will I?

https://discord.gg/rWgta2

That link expires in a day so PM me if you want in once it expires.

Raconteuse · 04-12-2019 12:21am

Alecto wrote: »

and another reminder! Come and join me, I won't bite, or will I?

https://discord.gg/rWgta2

That link expires in a day so PM me if you want in once it expires.

Aaah, welcome back!

Alecto · 04-12-2019 12:22am

Raconteuse wrote: »

Aaah, welcome back!

Ah thank you! It's nice to be back

MSN Messenger - Did you use it?

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