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   ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 13-Dec-2025 16:27:48 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

   it's kind of unbelievable that in 2025 the "instant messaging" problem is *less* solved than it was in 2010

   • Embed this notice
     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 13-Dec-2025 16:28:29 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     • Andrew Zonenberg

     @azonenberg good luck getting people to use IRC

   • Embed this notice
     Andrew Zonenberg (azonenberg@ioc.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 13-Dec-2025 16:28:30 JST Andrew Zonenberg

     in reply to

     @whitequark how is it less solved? we still have IRC as a stable baseline

   • Embed this notice
     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 13-Dec-2025 16:33:23 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     it's only slightly worse than it was in 2010 but it's a living proof that investing millions of dollars and untold number of hours into trying to make something better can make no positive difference at all

   • Embed this notice
     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 13-Dec-2025 16:34:19 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     do you wager my ICQ number still works?

   • Embed this notice
     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 13-Dec-2025 16:34:54 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     • Cassandra has had an adventure

     @xgranade me too!

   • Embed this notice
     Cassandra has had an adventure (xgranade@wandering.shop)'s status on Saturday, 13-Dec-2025 16:34:55 JST Cassandra has had an adventure

     in reply to

     @whitequark I still have mine memorized. Not, ya know, the password. Which would be useful. Sigh.

   • Embed this notice
     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 13-Dec-2025 16:38:05 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     • Andrew Zonenberg

     @azonenberg RIP

   • Embed this notice
     Andrew Zonenberg (azonenberg@ioc.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 13-Dec-2025 16:38:06 JST Andrew Zonenberg

     in reply to

     @whitequark Sadly they shut the service down in 2024

   • Embed this notice
     Jos (goleztrol@mastodon.social)'s status on Saturday, 13-Dec-2025 20:10:17 JST Jos

     in reply to

     @whitequark I tried it a while (some years) ago, but the password didn't work and they wanted to have a whole bunch of info including phone number before they'd reset it. When I checked again fairly recently, the whole service seemed gone.

   • Embed this notice
     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 01:59:58 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     • Andrew Zonenberg
     • postweber

     @azonenberg @postweber I do not have a desktop

   • Embed this notice
     Andrew Zonenberg (azonenberg@ioc.exchange)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 01:59:59 JST Andrew Zonenberg

     in reply to

     • postweber

     @postweber @whitequark i have been using irc fo something like 20 years without a bouncer? An always-on desktop is perfectly adequate

   • Embed this notice
     postweber (postweber@mstdn.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 02:00:00 JST postweber

     in reply to

     • Andrew Zonenberg

     @azonenberg @whitequark IRC is useless without a bouncer, which is quite the barrier to entry

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     JP (froztbyte@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 03:27:50 JST JP

     in reply to

     • elle mundy

     @whitequark @exchgr isn’t it just damned _great_ what the various walled gardens fought to make happen? :|

   • Embed this notice
     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 03:43:17 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     • infinite love ⴳ
     • Andrew Zonenberg
     • postweber

     @trwnh @azonenberg @postweber i don't consider it acceptable to have communication methods that can suddenly become unavailable

   • Embed this notice
     infinite love ⴳ (trwnh@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 03:43:18 JST infinite love ⴳ

     in reply to

     • Andrew Zonenberg
     • postweber

     @azonenberg @postweber @whitequark it is okay to log off. you don't always have to know what was said while you were offline

   • Embed this notice
     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 03:51:16 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     • infinite love ⴳ
     • Andrew Zonenberg
     • postweber

     @trwnh @azonenberg @postweber (this is actually much more for DMs than for rooms; i run one of the oldest surviving IRC loggers so the rooms are covered, the DMs of course are not)

   • Embed this notice
     infinite love ⴳ (trwnh@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 03:52:42 JST infinite love ⴳ

     in reply to

     • Andrew Zonenberg
     • postweber

     @whitequark @azonenberg @postweber everything can become unavailable at any time. your only real choice is whether you want to have an inbox hold your messages or not. if you don't, that's irc. if you do, that's email. everything else is basically a reinvention of one or the other. the messaging problem has been solved for a long time, the real problem is capitalism incentivizing 100 incompatible messengers because lock-in is profitable. a bouncer just turns irc into basically email

   • Embed this notice
     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 03:53:28 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     • infinite love ⴳ
     • Andrew Zonenberg
     • postweber

     @trwnh @azonenberg @postweber i'm aware

   • Embed this notice
     Jonathan Yu (jawnsy@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 04:54:59 JST Jonathan Yu

     in reply to

     @whitequark Yes, but think about all the Google engineers that can get promoted by building another chat system

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     ✧✦Catherine✦✧ (whitequark@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 05:32:00 JST ✧✦Catherine✦✧

     in reply to

     • Jonathan Yu

     @jawnsy dw nobody uses those

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     Jonathan Yu (jawnsy@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 15-Dec-2025 05:57:07 JST Jonathan Yu

     in reply to

     @whitequark Yeah, but if the instant messaging problem is solved, then Googlers won't be able to justify building a new one. The point isn't for anyone to use them or for them to have a meaningful business impact for Google, the point is only for ambitious employees to justify a promotion, as far as I can tell