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Thousands of ICQ Numbers Deleted

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the subtle-hints dept.

BondGamer writes "Many ICQ users woke up and found their ICQ numbers were no longer working. There is a topic on the ICQ support with more than 1,500 replies. There are pages upon pages of other topics asking what happened. As of yet, there has been no official response from AOL about what has happened."

12 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Backups? by Soruk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Probably a server drive crash, and this is where we discover AOL have been reliably backing up their ICQ server to /dev/null all these years.

    (and it seems mine is gone too, but I haven't used it in 4 years.)

    --
    -- Soruk
  2. Re:Still Around by franksands · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That's exactly what I thought. Oh, the good years of my first experiences with IM. The joy when they merged the chat with the messages. I wonder if my account still works.

  3. That takes me back. by Misanthrope · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ICQ was my first instant messaging client, modern clients owe a lot in terms of features to Mirabilis' innovations. Buddy pounces, file sharing, ability to send messages to people while they were signed off. It also had a generally fun feel to it's gui and sound design. I'm still peeved that it was also my introduction to account theft, somebody with a Czech email address is happily the new owner of my six digit number.

  4. User Purge by DuEyNZ · · Score: 2, Insightful

    delete from Users where clue = 0;

  5. It's all about AIM in the end... AIM and spyware. by sycomonkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I was under the impression that AOL has been trying to kill ICQ for years now. How are these people so (un)blissfully unaware of the situation?

    --
    --The universe will not be altered by forum threads, even those which are very wry. --Tycho Brahe (Penny Arcade)
  6. Re:Sorry, had to do it... by PMBjornerud · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Considering the the ICQ serves as a personal identification number, I think you actually got some truth in that joke.

    --
    I lost my sig.
  7. That's insane by dtfinch · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Almost everyone complaining has a 6 digit or shorter account number. They just f*cked their million oldest, most faithful users.

    Thankfully, my number is 7 digits.

  8. Re:SQL Statement Gone Awry? by asninn · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So what? Just rollback the transaction.

    --
    butter the donkey
  9. Re:Still Around by gDoDig · · Score: 2, Insightful

    IT just makes no sense to register on something else when you know you wont be able to talk to anyone. And it makes no sense to switch if majority does no switch with you. That's why we use Trillian or stuff like that with which you can be online on JABBER, ICQ, MSN, AIM, SIP, IRC, YAHOO and localy with RANDEVOUS all at the same time, that way you are available to anyone and everyone all the time without the hassle of running multiple clients.
  10. Re:SQL Statement Gone Awry? by kestasjk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    autocommit

    --
    // MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
  11. Re:SQL Statement Gone Awry? by JAlexoi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Nobody needs transactions" - MySQL team. But I'll guess I'll be that nobody.

  12. Did they not read the email... by aj50 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Did they not read the e-mail that was sent round last week saying that ICQ was running out of numbers and that some would be re-allocated unless they proved they were active users by sending the e-mail on to all their ICQ using friends?

    Too late to complain now, you should have read the e-mail and sent it on like me. It's not hard, sheesh.

    --
    I wish to remain anomalous