Does anyone here actively use Phoenix AIM or Escargot MSN?

[BritKnee]

I would love to talk to some people using it, kinda hard to find them though

[Memory]

Personally I think the idea is kinda cute but at the same time I feel like these themselves were the first part of the downfall with their proprietary protocols and clients, the beginning of spyware, corporate control over messaging, paid services and so on. They were the first behemoths usurping the messaging market for themselves, limiting interactibility, accessibility and custom clients.
If I want to do "retro" messaging, I go to chatrooms, or use XMPP or IRC. They're free and open source and much closer in spirit to what most of us are here for I feel.

[BritKnee]

Personally I think the idea is kinda cute but at the same time I feel like these themselves were the first part of the downfall with their proprietary protocols and clients, the beginning of spyware, corporate control over messaging, paid services and so on. They were the first behemoths usurping the messaging market for themselves, limiting interactibility, accessibility and custom clients.
If I want to do "retro" messaging, I go to chatrooms, or use XMPP or IRC. They're free and open source and much closer in spirit to what most of us are here for I feel.

Do you have any chatroom recommendations that are active please?

[Cobra!]

I have an Escargot: cobradile@escargot.chat

Personally I think the idea is kinda cute but at the same time I feel like these themselves were the first part of the downfall with their proprietary protocols and clients, the beginning of spyware, corporate control over messaging, paid services and so on. They were the first behemoths usurping the messaging market for themselves, limiting interactibility, accessibility and custom clients.
If I want to do "retro" messaging, I go to chatrooms, or use XMPP or IRC. They're free and open source and much closer in spirit to what most of us are here for I feel.

Why not use both? I just have Mercury running in the background on my phone and MSN whenever I'm on Windows (10 or 9:cool:, and if anyone wants to reach out to me personally, they can.

[Absentmind]

absentmind@escargot.chat  

[Inkerlink]

Feel free to give me an add on escargot:
inkerlink@escargot.chat

I usually always have it running and am perpetually online so, I'm pretty easy to get a hold of. 

I would love to talk to some people using it, kinda hard to find them though

So far the only way I was able to add anyone was A) Getting friends to try it out and B) Adding my address to a list in the official Escargot Discord server. And I suppose now this thread is the third way.

[Corrupted Unicorn]

I use Escargot because guess what, Discord thinks its WAAAAY too hip & modern to even grace Windows 7 with its presence  And I need a way to keep in touch with my BF when on my old laptop when I'm away, and I'm not going to use my phone all the time, especially if I'm working on my PC. I have two eyes (four, even), but I can't look at TWO screens at the same time!  Unless it was two monitor screens for my computer, but that's not the case.

I'm enjoying Escargot quite a lot. I love the customization, the old school emoticons, sending buzzers. My BF does point out a few flaws of MSN, tho: how... primitive sending images can be, the disappearance of messages after logging out, and how fickle the connection and status updates can be. I think Escargot has additional downloadable "packs" for stuff like games and those animations that took the whole screen... I should download them sometime 

[starbreaker]

I would love to talk to some people using it, kinda hard to find them though

I didn't even know Phoenix AIM was a thing. The fact that the site has a scrolling newsfeed that pulls headlines from InfoWars is not my idea of a good look.

I used to chat with my wife over AIM, but right now I'm remembering a line from Stephen King's novel Pet Sematery: "Sometimes, dead is better."

[warlock]

I didn't even know Phoenix AIM was a thing. The fact that the site has a scrolling newsfeed that pulls headlines from InfoWars is not my idea of a good look.

Yeah, Phoenix's maintainer got... weird... some years ago. Doing some rudimentary digging, it seems like the actual site started showing that scrolling 'news' banner around 2021, which I feel is probably just him going mask-off, but up to that point the project was definitely interesting.

Thankfully, the team behind Escargot have taken to setting up an AIM branch as well with their offshoot NINA. Escargot accounts carry over to that platform as well, so you only have to make one account for the two of them. Kinda neat!

That being said, while I've always been interested in these projects, all of my attempts to try them have been incredibly short lived. None of my friends have shown any interest in switching over even temporarily, and there isn't a stable client for linux or MacOS, at least not one that I could get working. IRC fills the "old IM experience" void that people seek to fill after leaving discord, at least personally. They're still really cool though! ^^

[starbreaker]

That being said, while I've always been interested in these projects, all of my attempts to try them have been incredibly short lived. None of my friends have shown any interest in switching over even temporarily, and there isn't a stable client for linux or MacOS, at least not one that I could get working. IRC fills the "old IM experience" void that people seek to fill after leaving discord, at least personally. They're still really cool though! ^^

My wife and I used the hell out of AIM from 2000 to 2004, which was when we first met online to when we got married. Sometimes I miss that old chat protocol, but I really only ever used it with her. For everything else I used email -- which I still enjoy getting from human beings.

Not so much from businesses.

[PurpleHello98]

I used to use AIM Phoenix around 2020, but never had any actual friends to talk to on there. I actually used Escargot for a while earlier this year when I was using Windows XP to talk to one of my high school friends, but I switched back to OS X which unfortunately doesn't seem to have a compatible client. I wonder if anyone will ever figure out a way to patch iChat/Messages to work with alternative services? I think it should work with XMPP, but I think that might only be through Jabber itself, not any old provider. :(

My BF does point out a few flaws of MSN, tho: how... primitive sending images can be, the disappearance of messages after logging out, and how fickle the connection and status updates can be. I think Escargot has additional downloadable "packs" for stuff like games and those animations that took the whole screen... I should download them sometime 

There should be a fix for the disappearing messages! At the very least, I know you can save your IMs to a chat log folder on your computer.