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AJCxZ0's avatar
AJCxZ0
Silver Expert
2 months ago
Solved

Identity and instant messaging: ICQ, Skype, AOL/AIM, Yahoo, MSN

ICQ: Retired 26 Jun 2024 in favour of VK Messenger Skype: Retired by Microsoft on 5 May 2025 in favour of Teams AIM: Retired 16 Dec 2017 by AOL Yahoo Messenger: Retired 18 Jul 2018 by Yahoo/Veriz...
best practices
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  • 1P_SimonH's avatar
    1P_SimonH
    2 months ago

    Hi AJCxZ0,

    You made me feel ancient at first, but your listing IRC as something we should include won me back over 😄

    You do make a good point, though. I'll flag this to the team!

    ref: PB-51229925

1P_SimonH's avatar
1P_SimonH
Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
2 months ago

Hi AJCxZ0,

You made me feel ancient at first, but your listing IRC as something we should include won me back over 😄

You do make a good point, though. I'll flag this to the team!

ref: PB-51229925

AJCxZ0's avatar
AJCxZ0
Silver Expert
2 months ago

Thank you, 1P_SimonH​.

For folks who ended up here but don't know, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), along with Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), is based on Internet standards, much like email, Usenet, the web, and the Fediverse. It's not a "platform" or subject to the whims of any owner like those dead instant messengers, the not-yet-dead chat platforms I mentioned, or commercial social media. Consequently, anyone can and did create services based on these standards, frequently making them freely available for anyone to use. The good ones, including IRC, continue to evolve and be used decades later.

IRC: AJ_Z0 on Libera.chat, OFTC, EFnet, and elsewhere