ICQ
Posted: March 4th, 2014, 8:10 am
Instant messaging services were for many years the glue which held the trek community together. While our forums have their own facebook-style integrated chat facility, I don't think it's a suitable replacement for fleet communications. For one, it only works when you're on the website. Seldom is anyone actually on the forums enough for this to allow overlapping communications. For another, it just doesn't have the spit-and-polish of a proper chat program.
Facebook and skype are not good alternatives either. They are all integrated with our personal lives, and to be honest clanning and real life deserve to be separated. For those who use teamspeak or other such programs, they are good... but again, they lack the always-on ability of instant messaging. Also verbal chat requires a commitment in time and energy many simply do not have. As a result, instant messaging was always the bread and butter of communications, and I think it should be again.
Once upon a time the majority of the community used MSN Messenger. Unfortunately, this program is no longer maintained by Microsoft. But before then, many in the community used ICQ. I recently thought it would be interesting to see if my old account worked - so I logged in. Lots of names populated the list, names preserved from the community of 10 years ago. All were offline, no surprises there. But the ICQ client seems to me to be every bit as capable as the old MSN Messenger client, and can be downloaded for free from the ICQ website.
I reckon you should check it out. Feel free to add me. My ICQ # is 136107187.
Facebook and skype are not good alternatives either. They are all integrated with our personal lives, and to be honest clanning and real life deserve to be separated. For those who use teamspeak or other such programs, they are good... but again, they lack the always-on ability of instant messaging. Also verbal chat requires a commitment in time and energy many simply do not have. As a result, instant messaging was always the bread and butter of communications, and I think it should be again.
Once upon a time the majority of the community used MSN Messenger. Unfortunately, this program is no longer maintained by Microsoft. But before then, many in the community used ICQ. I recently thought it would be interesting to see if my old account worked - so I logged in. Lots of names populated the list, names preserved from the community of 10 years ago. All were offline, no surprises there. But the ICQ client seems to me to be every bit as capable as the old MSN Messenger client, and can be downloaded for free from the ICQ website.
I reckon you should check it out. Feel free to add me. My ICQ # is 136107187.